Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something consumed to produce energy, especially.
  • noun A material such as wood, coal, gas, or oil burned to produce heat or power.
  • noun Fissionable material used in a nuclear reactor.
  • noun Nutritive material metabolized by a living organism; food.
  • noun Something that maintains or stimulates an activity or emotion.
  • intransitive verb To provide with fuel.
  • intransitive verb To support or stimulate the activity or existence of.
  • intransitive verb To take in fuel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any matter which serves by combustion for the production of fire; combustible matter, as wood, coal, peat, oil, etc.
  • noun Figuratively, anything that serves to feed or increase something conceived as analogous to flame, as passion or emotional excitement.
  • To feed or furnish with fuel or combustible matter.

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

  • transitive verb obsolete To feed with fuel.
  • transitive verb obsolete To store or furnish with fuel or firing.
  • noun Any matter used to produce heat by burning; that which feeds fire; combustible matter used for fires, as wood, coal, peat, etc.
  • noun Anything that serves to feed or increase passion or excitement.
  • noun fuel consisting of small particles, as coal dust, sawdust, etc., consolidated into lumps or blocks.

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

  • noun Substance consumed to provide energy through combustion, or through chemical or nuclear reaction.
  • noun Substance that provides nourishment for a living organism; food.
  • noun figuratively Something that stimulates, encourages or maintains an action.
  • verb to provide fuel
  • verb to exacerbate, to cause to grow or become greater

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb provide with fuel
  • noun a substance that can be consumed to produce energy
  • verb provide with a combustible substance that provides energy
  • verb stimulate
  • verb take in fuel, as of a ship

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English feuel, from Old French fouaille, feuaile, from Vulgar Latin *focālia, neuter pl. of *focālis, of the hearth or fireplace, from Latin focus, hearth, fireplace.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French fouaille, from feu ("fire").

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