Definitions

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

  • noun Gasoline.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as petroleum.
  • An abbreviation of petrology.
  • To fill or supply with petrol: as, to petrol a motor-car.
  • noun The lighter hydrocarbons from petroleum which are used as fuel in the motor- engines of vehicles and dirigible balloons; gasolene.

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

  • noun rare Petroleum.

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

  • noun New Zealand, UK Petroleum, a fluid consisting of a mixture of refined petroleum hydrocarbons, primarily consisting of octane, commonly used as a motor fuel.

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

  • noun a volatile flammable mixture of hydrocarbons (hexane and heptane and octane etc.) derived from petroleum; used mainly as a fuel in internal-combustion engines

Etymologies

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

[French (essence de) pétrole, (essence of) petroleum, gasoline, from Old French petrole, petroleum, from Medieval Latin petrōleum; see petroleum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French (essence de) pétrole, from Medieval Latin petroleum, from Ancient Greek πετρέλαιον (petrelaion, "oil of the rock"), from πέτρα (petra, "stone, rock")+ ἔλαιον (elaion, "olive oil, any oily substance")

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