KEROSENE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does kerosene mean? 

• KEROSENE (noun)
  The noun KEROSENE has 1 sense:

1. a flammable hydrocarbon oil used as fuel in lamps and heaters

  Familiarity information: KEROSENE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• KEROSENE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A flammable hydrocarbon oil used as fuel in lamps and heaters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

coal oil; kerosene; kerosine; lamp oil

Hypernyms ("kerosene" is a kind of...):

fuel (a substance that can be consumed to produce energy)

hydrocarbon (an organic compound containing only carbon and hydrogen)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "kerosene"):

paraffin; paraffin oil ((British usage) kerosine)

 Context examples 

"He cooked for himself," she interrupted, "on a little kerosene stove."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Zapata also made one landing on a boat mid-channel to refill the kerosene fuel in his backpack, a process Zapata described as being tricky because the boat could not be kept still in the moving waters of the Channel.

(French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard, Wikinews)

Burning a combination of refined kerosene called RP-1 and liquid oxygen and carrying a single solid-fueled booster, the first stage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 411 pushed the spacecraft through the dense lower layers of the atmosphere, then the Centaur upper stage took over, propelling OSIRIS-REx faster and higher.

(Evening Launch Catapults OSIRIS-REx Toward Asteroid Encounter, NASA)

He saw cowboys at the bar, drinking fierce whiskey, the air filled with obscenity and ribald language, and he saw himself with them drinking and cursing with the wildest, or sitting at table with them, under smoking kerosene lamps, while the chips clicked and clattered and the cards were dealt around.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)