culm
noun
coal dust; slack.
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culm
1 American
[kuhlm]
/ kʌlm /
noun
-
coal dust; slack.
-
anthracite, especially of inferior grade.
culm
2
American
[kuhlm]
/ kʌlm /
noun
verb (used without object)
Culm
1
British
noun
culm
2
British
/ kʌlm /
noun
culm
3
British
/ kʌlm /
noun
-
coal-mine waste
-
inferior anthracite
culm
Scientific
/ kŭlm /
Etymology
Origin of culm1
1300–50; Middle English colme, probably equivalent to col coal + -m suffix of uncertain meaning (compare -m in Old English fæthm fathom, wæstm growth)
Origin of culm2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It could also be a culm bank where they put all the refuse of the coal industry. It does look like there are trees growing on it.”
From Seattle Times • Dec. 25, 2017
As far as DEP is concerned, reprocessing coal from culm banks is a benefit: It mitigates a hazard, as well as the environmental issues, Stefanko said.
From Washington Times • Jun. 6, 2015
The task of dredging out millions of tons of accumulated silt and culm is ready to begin.
From Time Magazine Archive
Long have there been rumors that PRC would go into the power business, using its own small grade anthracite and reclaiming culm banks for fuel.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the mountainous piles of refuse, of "culm," barefooted children, nearly as black as their miner fathers, were tramping homeward with burdens of coal that they had gleaned from the waste.
From Derrick Sterling A Story of the Mines by Monroe, Kirk
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
