pit-coal Now rare or arch.
[f. pit n.1 (sense 6) + coal.]
Coal obtained from pits or mines (as distinguished from charcoal, coal n. 4: formerly called also sea-coal, now usually simply coal, coal n. 5). See also quot. 1883.
| 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 141 The greatest quantitie and best kind of pit-coales is in Nottinghamshire. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 125 The History of Pit-coal, otherwise called Sea-coale. 1747 Wesley Prim. Physic (1765) 107 A Mud made of powder'd Pitcoal and Water. 1854 Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) I. 30 The former is called brown coal, or lignite, while many varieties of the latter are classed together under the common name of bituminous or pit-coal. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Pit Coal generally signifies the bituminous varieties of coal. |
| attrib. 1731 Gentl. Mag. I. 167 Proposes with Pit-Coal Fire to make Bar Iron from Pig Metal. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 734 A common pit-coal or other fire. |