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• culm
  culm

  noun

  coal dust; slack.
• Culm
  Culm

  noun

  a formation consisting mainly of shales and sandstone deposited during the Carboniferous period in parts of Europe

culm

¹ American  

[kuhlm] / kʌlm /

noun

1. coal dust; slack.

2. anthracite, especially of inferior grade.

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culm ² American  

[kuhlm] / kʌlm /

noun

1. a stem or stalk, especially the jointed and usually hollow stem of grasses.

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verb (used without object)

1. to grow or develop into a culm.

culm ¹ British  

/ kʌlm /

noun

1. the hollow jointed stem of a grass or sedge

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Culm ² British  

noun

1. a formation consisting mainly of shales and sandstone deposited during the Carboniferous period in parts of Europe

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culm ³ British  

/ kʌlm /

noun

1. coal-mine waste

2. inferior anthracite

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culm Scientific  

/ kŭlm /

1. The stem of a grass or similar plant.

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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

1650–60; < Latin culmus stalk; akin to calamus, haulm

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

culm Culm

“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

Hard coal diggings had scarred Scranton's hills and undermined its streets; the exhausted mines threatened to cave in the whole economy of the polyglot community among the culm dumps of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

From Time Magazine Archive

Thence the roadbed becomes a chute between cliffs, trees, coal tupples and culm banks into Wilkes-Barre,† on the Susquehanna River.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the north-east of Cornwall from a line drawn from below Launceston, on the Tamar, to Boscastle the rocks belong to the culm measures of North Devon.

From Cornwall by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould

For the third year running, the Environment Agency said it had restocked the River Culm in Devon following pollution in 2019.

From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2021

This unconformity is generally found about the same horizon in the continental Culm areas, and it occurs again in the western part of the English Culm.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 3 "Capefigue" to "Carneades" by Various

Culm and rootstocks stouter than in C. stricta; the narrow panicle less dense, and purplish spikelets larger; glumes fully 2´´ long, tapering to a point; awn from much below the middle of the glume, stout.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Asa Gray

A Culm, or straw-stem, such as that of Grasses and Sedges.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray

The enraged Prussians collected large forces, and attacked the land of Culm, with the intent to raze Dobjin.

From The Deluge, Vol. I. (of 2) An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. by Henryk Sienkiewicz