Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coal-heaver.
  • Pertaining to or like coal; containing coal.
  • noun A dialectal form of collie.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to, or resembling, coal; containing coal; of the nature of coal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Resembling coal.
  • adjective Covered in, or containing, coal.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

coal +‎ -y

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Examples

  • In this coaly no-time strewn with fallen stars, you are a roaming panther and I am a tangle of snakes.

    Blind Roberta Lawson 2011

  • Nearer, I distinguished the green slime of ditches mixing with the pale drab of dried clay and shiny, coaly patches.

    The War of The Worlds H. G. Wells 2009

  • The perspective of squat blue slate roofs and clustering chimneys drifted downward towards the irregular open space before the colliery — a space covered with coaly, wheel-scarred mud, with a patch of weedy dump to the left and the colliery gates to the right.

    In the Days of the Comet Herbert George 2006

  • I was covered with coaly mud — knees, elbows, shoulders, back.

    In the Days of the Comet Herbert George 2006

  • Before them, by the stile rose a notice-board, bearing still dimly visible, the words, “BEWARE OF THE TRAINS,” half hidden by splashes of coaly mud.

    The Door in the Wall, and other stories Herbert George 2006

  • Nearer, I distinguished the green slime of ditches mixing with the pale drab of dried clay and shiny, coaly patches.

    The War of the Worlds Herbert George 2006

  • So, inverting the condition of the city clerk in the days when London was scarce inhabitable because of the coaly foulness of its air, the labourers now came hurrying by road or air to the city and its life and delights at night to leave it again in the morning.

    When the Sleeper Wakes 2006

  • His sense of right and wrong became fluid with confusion; he saw no sign of anything to eat; and the loud howl of an injured heart began to issue from the coaly rampart of neglected teeth.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • But several very coaly-looking men, who could scarcely be taught to keep silence, observed that the magistrate smiled once or twice; and this made them wait a bit, and wink at one another.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • At least, Mr John Rokesmith was on the pier looking out, about a couple of hours before the coaly (but to him gold-dusty) little steamboat got her steam up in London.

    Our Mutual Friend 2004

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  • Citation on bathing machine.

    February 3, 2009

  • And on blacklead.

    April 21, 2009