Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The fine black particles, chiefly composed of carbon, produced by incomplete combustion of coal, oil, wood, or other fuels.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A black substance formed by combustion, or disengaged from fuel in the process of combustion, rising in fine particles and adhering to the sides of the chimney or pipe conveying the smoke. The soot of coal and that of wood differ very materially in their composition, the former containing more finely divided carbon than the latter. Coal-soot also contains considerable quantities of ammonium sulphate and chlorid. The soot of wood has a peculiar empyreumatic odor and bitter taste. It is very complex in composition, containing potash, soda, lime, and magnesia, combined with both organic and inorganic acids. It has been used to some extent in medicine as a tonic and antispasmodic.
- To mark, cover, or treat with soot.
- Middle English forms of sweet.
Wiktionary
- n. Fine black or dull brown particles of amorphous carbon and tar, produced by the incomplete combustion of coal, oil etc.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A black substance formed by combustion, or disengaged from fuel in the process of combustion, which rises in fine particles, and adheres to the sides of the chimney or pipe conveying the smoke; strictly, the fine powder, consisting chiefly of carbon, which colors smoke, and which is the result of imperfect combustion. See smoke.
- v. To cover or dress with soot; to smut with, or as with, soot.
- adj. Sweet.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink
- v. coat with soot
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old English sōt; see sed- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“While rain will remove rocket exhaust soot from the lower atmosphere, carbon particles will remain in the stratosphere, according to a paper to be published in the scientific journal Geophysics Research Letters.”
“A third man on the tracks, covered in soot and dirt and with all but his boxer shorts blown off by the blast, had been staring into space, he said.”
The Guardian: 7/7 inquest: Survivor breaks down as he recalls struggle to help Aldgate injured
“They were just covered in soot, their hair was all over the place, you just basically saw the whites of their eyes.”
“Hutchinson snuffed the smoky candle and reflectively rubbed the soot from the wick between thumb and forefinger.”
“He said that, as shocked passengers emerged from the tunnel covered in soot, one of them "quite angrily" said there had been fatalities on the train.”
The Guardian: 7/7 inquest told of King's Cross confusion after Piccadilly line blast
“Traditionally Samichlaus would come along with his (politically incorrect) friend Schmutzli ( 'schmutz' meaning dirt - usually this was a person covered in soot).”
“The three back-to-back episodes of the original seven-part Daleks story, in soot-and-chalk black and white, with William Hartnell sleepwalking through the script, correcting his own fluffed lines as he goes, was slow stuff.”
“The villagers think the experiment has failed but Scundoo is very clever: He asks everybody raise to raise their hands above their heads and every hand is blackened with soot from the iron pot — every hand except Sime's.”
“And must I. . .who am weary, travel always your trail until I die?”
“You know, I was usually covered in soot when I was a kid, and everything was in black and white, the factory chimneys and smoke and all that, and when I looked on the screen it was the same thing.”
Ballardian » Escaping the gaze: A review of John Foxx's Tiny Colour Movies
“Much of the snow in this once-pristine place is covered with soot from a mine that Russians operate there.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘soot’.
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Surprising four-letter words
I imagine most of these will be Anglo-Saxon, not likely to crop up in the average day's conversation, and thus excellent for Scrabble. ("most" is too common, likewise "will" and even "crop", in an...
blet, quim, clit, buff, sire, wiki, blog, loam, waft, heft, mare, lilt and 68 more...
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