white damp


noun
  1. a poisonous coal-mine gas composed chiefly of carbon monoxide.

Origin of white damp

1
First recorded in 1880–85

Words Nearby white damp

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use white damp in a sentence

  • There is also "white-damp," the gas which you see burning with a pretty blue flame over a hot coal fire.

    Diggers in the Earth | Eva March Tappan
  • Carbon monoxide was pouring out, the deadly white damp, that kills as it strikes!

    The Boy With the U.S. Miners | Francis Rolt-Wheeler
  • From time to time he was seized by convulsive fits; resembling those of epilepsy, and characteristic of white damp poisoning.

    The Boy With the U.S. Miners | Francis Rolt-Wheeler
  • You know, it is a product of combustion, and is very deadly—it is the much-dreaded white damp or afterdamp of a mine explosion.

    The Silent Bullet | Arthur B. Reeve
  • Pretty nearly all the cases of poisoning in mines are due to 'white damp.'

    The Boy With the U. S. Life-Savers | Francis Rolt-Wheeler

British Dictionary definitions for whitedamp

whitedamp

/ (ˈwaɪtˌdæmp) /


noun
  1. a mixture of poisonous gases, mainly carbon monoxide, occurring in coal mines: See also afterdamp

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012