▪ I. culm1
(kʌlm)
In 5–6 culme, 7 colme.
[The same word as coom n.1, pointing to a ME. culm, colm. Connexion with col, coal, suggests itself, and is strengthened by the synonymy of ME. bicolmen, bicollen, the former a deriv. of colm, culm, the latter of colwen, from col, coal: cf. becoom (be- 6 a) collow, colly. But the actual analysis of the word is obscure.]
1. Soot, smut. Obs. exc. Sc.; = coom n.1 1.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 108 Culme of smeke, fuligo. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. ii. (1593) 34 Againe the culme and smouldring smoke did wrap him round about. 1658 Phillips, Culm, smoak or soot. Hence in Kersey, Bailey, etc. [in both noted as Obs.]. 1847–8 H. Miller First Impr. iv. (1857) 48 A mud-coloured atmosphere of smoke and culm. 1861 A. H. Clington Frank O'Donnell 171 My face and body all covered with culm..made him take me for the devil. |
2. Coal-dust, small or refuse coal, slack.
| [1348 in Nottingham Rec. I. 144 Praedictam dimidiam partem minerae carbonum marinorum et culmorum.] 1603 Owen Pembrokeshire (1891) 70 In this kill first is made a fier of Coales or rather colme which is but the duste of the coales. Ibid. 91 A smaler Ridle with which they drawe smale coales for the smythes from the colme which is in deede but verie dust, which serveth for lyme burninge. 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3892/1 An Act for continuing the Duties upon Coles, Culm, and Cynders [= Coke]. 1770–4 A Hunter Georg. Ess. (1803) III. 149 Culm, or small refuse coal. 1799 Kirwan Geol. Ess. 298 At Whitehaven, under a bed of common clay..a bed of natural clayey carbon or culm of 3 fathom is found. 1882 Brit. Q. Rev. Jan. 87, 4s. per ton for culm, or coal-dust. |
b. Hence, spec. applied to the slack of anthracite or stone-coal, from the Welsh collieries, which was in common use for burning lime and drying malt.
| 1736 Bailey Househ. Dict. 397. 1756 R. Pococke Trav. (1889) II. 188 The coals here [Tenby]..run into culm, which they work up with clay, and make it into balls; it is very good fuel. 1769 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. II. 366 The County of Pembroke abounds particularly in that Sort of Coal called Stone Coal, the small Pieces of which are stiled Culm. 1806 Martin in Phil. Trans. XCVI. 344. 1849 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. X. i. 149 Culm is the dust of the stone-coal, and is prepared for burning by being mixed with clay or mud from the shore. 1883 A. Williams Min. Resources U.S. 31 A mixture of anthracite slack, or ‘culm’, with bituminous coal. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Culm, the slack of non-bituminous or anthracite coal is known by no other name. |
c. By extension, sometimes employed as a synonym of anthracite, or of one of its varieties, the slaty glance coal. Also in pl. culms, like coals.
| 1742 Lond. & Country Brew. i. (ed. 4) 8 There is another Sort, by some wrongly called Coak, and rightly named Culm or Welch-coal, from Swanzey in Pembrokeshire, being of a hard stony Substance, in small Bits..and will burn without Smoak. 1841 Fossil Fuel, etc. (ed. 2) 336 Varieties of Anthracite (2) The slaty glance-coal..This is the anthracite so abundant in the United States; the culm* of our Welsh collieries. *(Note. This is a brittle crumbling anthracite.) 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 77 The coal..on the western side being chiefly stone coal or culm, and on the eastern side, bituminous coking coal. |
3. Geol. (More fully culm measures or culm series.) A name given by some geologists to a series of shales, sandstones, etc. containing, in places, thin beds of impure anthracite, which represent the Carboniferous series in North Devon; also to strata supposed to be the analogues of these elsewhere.
The Culm series is generally considered to be contemporary with the Carboniferous limestone, but is much less rich in marine remains. It is extensively developed along the borders of Austria, Poland, and Russia; and includes the calp of Ireland.
| [1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 54 Some years since a vein of culm appearing near the surface on the parish of Chittlehampton.] 1836 Sedgwick & Murchison in Brit. Assoc. Rep. (1837) V. (title) A classification of..Rocks..of Devonshire..On the true position of the Culm Deposits. 1837 ― Trans. Geol. Soc. V. 670 The base of the culm series. Ibid. Note, The undoubted culm-measures. 1839 H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. 124 Anthracite, or culm, occurs in a few beds, of very variable thickness, between Greenacliff..and..Chittlehampton..The culm itself seems the result of irregular accumulations of vegetable matter intermingled with mud and sand. 1882 Geikie Text-bk. Geol. vi. iv. §2. 748. |
† 4. Applied (? in error) to coke; cf. quot. 1742 in 2 c. Obs.
| 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Brewing, Dry it leisurely with Pit-coal, char'd, called in some places coak and in others Culm. [Anthracite is a natural coke.] |
† 5. attrib. and Comb., as culm-dealer, culm-pit, etc.
| 1755 Gentl. Mag. XXV. 447 There is also a culm pit, which was worked for fuel a few years ago. 1854 Illust. Lond. News 5 Aug. 118/3 Occupations of the People. Culm⁓dealer. |
▪ II. culm2 Bot.
(kʌlm)
[ad. L. culm-us stalk, stem (esp. of grain).]
The stem of a plant; esp. the jointed and usually hollow stalk of grasses.
| 1657 Phys. Dict., Culms, stalks. 1794 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xiii. 139 Meadow Fescue..has a culm two feet high. 1854 Hooker Himal. Jrnls. I. iii. 70 A kind of reed work formed of long culms of Saccharum. |
Hence culm v. intr., to form a culm; culmed ppl. a., having a culm.
| 1860 Mayne Reid in Chamb. Jrnl. XIV. 1 The young maize..is rapidly culming upward. a 1862 Thoreau Excursions, Autumnal Tints (1863) 223 A very tall and slender-culmed grass. |
▪ III. † culm3 Obs. rare.
Also 6 culme.
[Shortened f. culmen.]
The highest point, summit, culminating point.
| 1587 Misfort. Arthur iii. iv. in Hazl. Dodsley IV. 313 Who strives to stand..On giddy top and culm of slippery court. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 194 The mountaines are..seldome uncovered of snow, in their culme and highest tops. 1821 Tales My Landlord (New Ser.), Witch of Glas Llyn II. 146 Three times will they be raised against his life. At the third his star will have reached its culm. |
▪ IV. culm4
var. come n.2
| 1940 in Chambers's Techn. Dict. 215/1. 1953 Word for Word (Whitbread & Co.) 17/1 Culms (or Coombes), the rootlets which are sieved from the malt at the end of the malting process; they are used for poultry and cattle food. |