choke-damp
(ˈtʃəʊkˌdæmp)
[f. choke- + damp.]
A miner's term for the carbonic acid gas (or air largely mixed therewith) which accumulates in old workings in coal-pits, and at the bottom of wells, quarries, and caves; after an explosion in a coal-mine, it often rises and mingling with the remaining nitrogen, steam, smoke and dust, constitutes the after-damp, which suffocates the survivors from the deflagration of the fire-damp.
| 1741 Brownrigg in Phil. Trans. LV. 240 The choak-damp, or stith, found in the coal-mines. 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xi. 482 This [carbonic acid] gas, or air, is often found to occupy the lower parts of mines. It is called the choke-damp by the miners. 1812 J. Hodgson in Raine Mem. (1857) I. 97 This after-damp is called choak-damp and surfeit by the colliers. 1871 Hartwig Subterr. W. xxiii. 278 The choke-damp, or black-damp, the name given by the miners to carbonic acid gas. 1878 L. P. Meredith Teeth 192 By lowering the patient into the choke-damp of a well. 1886 Pall Mall G. 27 Sept. 10/1 The officials, realizing that the catastrophe was due to choke-damp, called to the visitors to run. |
| fig. 1873 F. Hall Mod. English 18 Stifled by the choke-damp of folly. |