rock oil
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of rock oil
1660–70; translation of Medieval Latin petroleum
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.
But by fracking the rock, oil flowed from the shale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2014
From such processes the so-called hydrocarbons, rock oil and natural gas, have accumulated.
From Earth and Sky Every Child Should Know Easy studies of the earth and the stars for any time and place by Rogers, Julia Ellen
Both Townsend and Drake would have died richer men had they never heard of the Pennsylvania rock oil.
From Inventors by Hubert, Philip Gengembre
So far, Bissell's enterprise seemed to promise success, yet the great problem still remained: how could he obtain this rock oil in amounts large enough to make his enterprise a practical one?
From The Age of Big Business; a chronicle of the captains of industry by Hendrick, Burton Jesse
Petroleum, or rock oil, is a dark greenish brown liquid which when refined yields gasolene, naphtha, benzine, kerosene, lubricating oils, and paraffin.
From Checking the Waste A Study in Conservation by Gregory, Mary Huston
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.
