| 释义 |
▪ I. oil, n.1|ɔɪl|
Forms: see below. See also ele n.
[Early ME. oli, olie, oyle, oile, a. ONF. olie, OF. 12th c. oile, oille, 13th c. oele, uille, 15th c. oyle, huille, 16th c. huile (orig. masc.), in Fr. dial. ole, eule, Pr. ol, Sp. and It. olio (It. formerly oglio):—L. oleum oil, olive oil; cf. olea olive. The OE. word was ele, earlier œle:—*oli = OHG. oli, Ger. öl, ad. L. olium, oleum; this was superseded in 12–13th c. by the Fr. word in two types, α. oli(e, β. oile, and their later reprs. (some of these perh. influenced by later F. (h)uile). The α. forms after 13th c. were only northern and esp. Sc., where ulyie, uillie (ˈøl(j)ɪ) still survives. The 13th c. eoli, eolie (see ele), eoile, connect the OE. and F. types.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) 2–4 oli, 3 oliȝe, 3 (6 Sc.) olie, 4 Sc. olȝe, 5 oly, oyly, ole; Sc. 6 olye, oley, oulie, vly(e, vlly, 6–9 ulye, 8 ulȝie, 8–9 ulyie, oolie, uley.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 79 An helendis Mon..wesch his wunden mid wine and smerede mid oli. c1250Gen. & Ex. 2458 He ben smered..Wið crisme and olie. c1440Promp. Parv. 363/2 Oly, or oyl, oleum. 1483Cath. Angl. 259/1 Ole, oleum. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxvii. 48 The vly birstit out. 1513Douglas æneis vi. iv. 37 The fat olie [ed. 1553 olye] did he ȝet. 1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. (1821) I. p. xxxviii, Ane fontane..quhair stremis of oulie springis ithandlie. 1549Compl. Scot. xix. 161 The..vlye makkis the fyir mair bold. 1568Bannatyne MS. (Hunterian Club) 394 Sum of vlly spewis ane quairt. 1722Ramsay Three Bonnets ii. 57 Wi' language glibe as oolie. a1774Fergusson Election Poems (1845) 39 The barber..straikit it wi' ulzie [= ulȝie]. 1816Scott Antiq. x, Would ye creesh his bonny brown hair wi' your nasty ulyie? 1858M. Porteous Souter Johnny 33 Outowre the ulye, midnicht late. 1858Ramsay Remin. Ser. i. (1860) 261 The uley-pot, or uley cruse.
(β) 3 eoile, 3–7 oyle, 3–8 oyl, 4–7 oile, (4 uile, oyel, 4–5 oylle, oille, 5 oel, hoyle, 6 huill), 4, 7– oil, (9 vulgar and dial. ile).
a1225Leg. Kath. 2519 Ȝet of þe lutle banes..floweð oðer eoile ut. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 293 He let fulle corn & oyl & win bi eche side. 1340Ayenb. 93 In þe writyngge ha clepeþ uile oure lhord..‘vile of blisse uor wepinge’..Of þise oyle byeþ ysmered þo þet god heþ ymad kynges. c1375Cursor M. 11870 (Gött.) Pic and oil [Cott. oile, Fairf. oyle] til his bi-houe. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2103 Who wrastleth best naked with oille [v.rr. oyle, oile] enoynt. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xiv. 61 Þat table euermare droppez oel, as it ware of oliue. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 70, I haue putte more oille in my lampe to studie by. 1659Stanley Hist. Philos. III. ii. 132 One sort is fluid, as Honey, Oyle. 1684R. Waller Nat. Exper. 27 If..the Vial be filled with Oile. 1767T. Hutchinson Hist. Mass. II. iv. 445 The consumption of oyl by lamps. 1888Ile [see 3 f].
(γ) dial. 6 yolle, 7 yolld(?), youll.
c1568in Swayne Sarum Church-w. Acc. (1896) 116 Pynt of yolle for the Belles vd. 1610MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., For yolld and canndelles. Ibid., For youll.
B. Signification.
1. A substance having the following characters (or most of them): viz. those of being liquid at ordinary temperatures, of a viscid consistence and characteristic smooth and sticky (unctuous) feel, lighter than water and insoluble in it, soluble in alcohol and ether, inflammable, chemically neutral.
a. without an or pl. In early use almost always = olive-oil. Now freq. ‘mineral oil, petroleum’; cf. petroleum.
c1175[see A. α]. a1300E.E. Psalter xxii[i]. 5 Þou fatted in oli mi heved yhit. c1305Land of Cokaygne 46 in E.E.P. (1862) 157 Þer beþ riuers..Of oile, melk, honi and wine. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) ii. 6 He wald send him of þe oile of þe tree of mercy. 1548–9(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Visit. Sick, As with this visible oyle thy body outwardly is annoynted. 1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Disc. viii. 84 The five foolish virgins..begd oyle. 1752Hume Pol. Disc. iii. 41 'Tis the oil which renders the motion of the wheel more smooth and easy. 1860Chem. News 6 Oct. 204/2 The wells yield, by pumping, from ten to twenty-five barrels per day of the crude oil. 1862Ibid. 20 Sept. 149/2 It is believed that the United States and Canada possess natural supplies of petroleum to furnish the rest of the world, for ages to come, with sufficient quantities of oil to yield all the artificial light required, and perhaps much of the fuel also. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. iv. 73 [They] spend their own oil in feeding their own lamp. 1907V. B. Lewes Liquid & Gaseous Fuels iv. 85 In these early wells the oil had to be pumped, but in 1861 a well drilled to a depth of 460 feet yielded oil at such pressure that it rose to the surface and overflowed. 1930C. T. Brunner Probl. of Oil p. iii, To-day the industrial importance of oil is incalculable... Transport interests..depend mainly on oil..as the source of their power, while even the roads..are surfaced with a derivative of oil, bitumen. 1964J. P. Getty My Life & Fortunes ii. 23 Today, oil is big business, probably the biggest of all businesses. Without oil, there would be—there could be—no civilization as we know it. 1976Daily Tel. 17 June 6/5 Converting more power stations from oil to coal would push up electricity charges.
b. with an and pl., indicating a particular kind or different kinds.
The oils constitute a very large group of natural substances, of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin. They are divided into three classes: (1) fatty oil or fixed oils (see fatty 6, fixed 4 c), of animal or vegetable origin, which (in common with fats) are chemically triglycerides of fatty acids, and produce a permanent greasy stain on paper, etc.; these are subdivided into drying oils, which by exposure to air absorb oxygen and thicken into varnishes, and non-drying oils, which by exposure ferment and become rancid; they are used as lubricants, as illuminants, in making soap, and for various other purposes. (2) essential oil or volatile oils (see essential a. 5 b), chiefly of vegetable (sometimes of animal) origin, which are acrid and limpid, and form the characteristic odoriferous principles of plants, etc.; chemically, they are hydrocarbons, or mixtures of hydrocarbons with resins, etc.; they are extensively used in medicine and perfumery, and in some cases in the arts. (3) mineral oils, which are chemically mixtures of hydrocarbons, and are used chiefly as illuminants.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxii. (MS. Bodl.) lf. 217/2 Many diuers oile is pressedde oute of many diuers þinges and some oile is semple: as oile of olife, oile of nottes, oile of popie..and some oile is medled and compowned. 1652Culpepper Eng. Physic. 3 Used outwardly as an Oyl or Oyntment. 1695W. Halifax in Phil. Trans. 100 Perhaps he distributed among them Sweet Oyls, to be used in or after their Bathings. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 261. 1742 in Nature (1882) XXVI. 620 An oyle extracted from a flinty rock for the cure of rheumatick..and other cases. 1875Ure's Dict. Arts III. 456 Essential oils..are not greasy to the touch, like the fat oils. 1892Morley & Muir Watts' Dict. Chem. III. 637/1 Oils are said to be ‘fixed’ when they cannot be distilled either alone or with steam without undergoing decomposition; oils that can be so distilled being termed volatile or essential oils... Fatty oils that absorb oxygen from the air, and thus become slowly converted into varnishes are termed drying oils, e.g. linseed, hazel-nut, hemp, and poppy oils. Drying oils contain glycerides of linoleïc and similar unsaturated acids.
c. holy oil: oil used in religious or sacred rites, as the anointing of priests or kings, chrism, extreme unction, etc.
c1305St. Katherine 301 in E.E.P. (1862) 98 Of hire tumbe þer vrneþ ȝut holi oylle. 1382Wyclif Num. xxxv. 25 The greet preest that with hooli oyle is anoynt. 1559Mirr. Mag., Hen. VI, v, When a crown in cradel made me king with oyle of holy thoumbe. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. i. 88 She had all the Royall makings of a Queene; As holy Oyle, Edward Confessors Crowne. 1885Cath. Dict. (ed. 3) 404/2 Since the seventh century the holy oils, formerly consecrated at any time, have been blessed by the bishop in the Mass of this day [Maundy Thursday].
†d. Old Chem. One of the five supposed ‘principles’ of bodies. Obs.
1706Phillips s.v., Among Chymists, Oil or Sulphur is one of the five Principles of their Art, being a subtil, fat Substance, capable of taking fire, which usually arises after the Spirit. 1727–41Chambers Cycl. s.v Elements, The four principles, salt, oil, water, and earth, are always found in all plants. Ibid. s.v. Principle, The chymists make five principles; three whereof are called active principles..such as salt; sulphur or oil; and mercury or spirit... The two passive principles..are phlegm and caput mortuum.
e. midnight oil: see midnight n. 5.
2. In the names of the various kinds, unlimited in number:
a. denoted by oil of with the name of the source (plant, animal, etc.), or sometimes of a person, as oil of almonds, amber, ben, cade, dill, eucalyptus, fennel, geranium, juniper, lavender, etc., etc.; oil of Matthiole (see quot. 1861), oil of scorpions, oil of philosophers (see philosopher).
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxii. (MS. Bodl.) lf. 217 b/1 Oile of popie..is moste made of blacke popie sede. [See also 1 b.] c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 312 Oile of rosis, & þe ȝelke of an ey, ben good þerfore. 1552Huloet, Oyle of almondes, metopion. 1641French Distill. iii. (1651) 73 There will remain..the true Oil or Essence of Antimony. 1662R. Mathew Unl. Alch. §89. 130 Anointing it with Oyl of Amber and Oyl of Roses mixed together. 1741Compl. Fam.-Piece i. i. 57 Take Oil of Scorpions, and Oil of Bees-wax. 1834Southey Doctor xxiv. I. 236 Oil of swallows..procured by pounding twenty live swallows in a mortar with about as many different herbs. 1838T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 469 Oil of Bitter Almonds may be obtained by distilling bitter almonds with water. 1850Daubeny Atomic The. x. (ed. 2) 345 A neutral sulphate of oxide of ethyle, commonly called oil of wine. 1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. 65 The entire Animal..infused in oil..Scorpion (Oil of Matthiole). 1870J. Power Handybk. ab. Bks. iii. 46 Pieces of cotton impregnated with oil of cedar or of birch. 1876Harley Mat. Med. (ed. 6) 413 Oil of Cade is a brown inflammable tarry liquid, with a strong acrid taste.
b. The name of the source, or other defining word, preceding oil, as argan oil, brick oil, cod liver oil, cottonseed oil, fish oil, linseed oil, olive oil, etc., etc., hair oil, salad oil, etc. (see these words); animal oil, any oil obtained from an animal body; spec. Dippel's animal oil, an oil prepared by distillation from stag's horns, etc. and used in medicine; dead oil (see dead D. 2); sweet oil = olive-oil.
1565in Reg. Privy Counc. Scot. I. 360 Twa barrell of fische huill. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxiv. (1887) 123 Then were they oynted with sweete oyle. 1766Gentl. Mag. Apr. 171/1 The oil called Zacchæus's oil, is expressed from the fruit of a tree that..is said..to be of the kind which Zacchæus climbed. 1823Crabb Technol. Dict., Dippel's animal oil,..so called from the chemist who first observed it. 1836–41Brande Man. Chem. (ed. 5) 1133 Beech-nut oil, the decorticated nuts of the beech-tree..yield about 15 per cent. of oil resembling olive oil. 1861Hulme tr. Moquin-Tandon ii. iii. 188 Animal oil is produced in great abundance by the Whale and the Porpoise. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 160 Whale Oil, White and Black Porpoise Oil,..Seal Oil, Sturgeon Oil, &c.
c. rarely, with defining word following, as † oil castor = castor oil, † oil olive = olive-oil.
1779M. Cutler in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888) I. 75 Making a screw to express *oil castor.
[1309Durham Acc. Rolls 6, j barello *olei olive.] 1469in Househ. Ord. (1790) 102 Oyle olif for Lent. 1535Coverdale Lev. xxiv. 2 That they brynge pure oyle olyue beaten for lightes. 1545Nottingham Rec. III. 224 A pynt oyle Olyve. 1673Phil. Trans. VIII. 6002 That Aqua vitæ swims upon Oyl-olive.
d. in partly-anglicized phrases from French; † oil-de-bay (-baies) = oil of bay (obtained from the bay laurel); † oil d'olive = olive-oil; † oil-de-rose, tr. L. oleum roseum.
1545Rates of Customs c j b, *Oyle debay the barrell conteinynge c. pounde. 1601Holland Pliny (1634) I. 434 Some take the Bay berries only, and thereout presse oile-de-Baies. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 273 A Goose feather anointed with Oyl-de-bay.
c1400Lanfranc's Cirurg. 41 *Oile de oliue þat is nouȝt ripe. 1419Liber Albus (Rolls) I. 224 Karke de oille dolive. 1535Lyndesay Satyre 4057 To..mix..saiffrone with oyl-dolie. a1585Polwart Flyting w. Montgomerie 234 For thy feuer..take old-oly Mixt with a mouthfull of melancholy.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. vi. 213 *Oilderose Me may baptize and name hit.
3. In figurative and allusive uses.
a. In allusion to the use of oil for anointing (ceremonial or medicinal), or for maintaining light or heat; esp. in reference to ‘smooth’, i.e. soothing or flattering, words (see also b); also with stronger implications: nonsense, falsehood.
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 5/146 With Oyle of milce smeorien him. a1300Cursor M. 955 Þe oil o merci. a1340Hampole Psalter cxxvii. 4 Enoynt wiþ oyl of charite. a1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 38 Þis devocioun is þe oyle. 1382― Ps. xliv. 8 [xlv. 7] Therfore enoyntide thee God, thi God, with oile of gladnesse befor thi felawis. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 154 Swete vnccyon of oyle of the holy goost. 1531Elyot Gov. iii. xxv, Two or three drops of the sweete oyle of remembraunce. 1638Shirley Mart. Soldier iii. iii, A little oyle of favour will scoure thee agen, And make thee shine as bright. 1657Trapp Comm. Job xxix. 25 He had so fourbished the sword of Justice with the Oyle of Mercy. 1781in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 835 His wants are supplied by the oil of his tongue. 1877G. Dawson Prayers (1878) 46 When the oil of life has run out. 1917Amer. Mag. Nov. 39/2 ‘Why dearie!’ I remarks, kissin' her; ‘You know I—’. ‘Easy with the oil!’ she cuts me off. 1924[see bushwa, -wah]. 1926Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 14/2 Throwing the oil, telling glib falsehoods. 1940M. Marples Public School Slang 130 At Winchester..oil = an evasion. 1940Wodehouse Eggs, Beans & Crumpets 168 Coo to him, and give him the old oil. 1954― Jeeves & Feudal Spirit i. 7 It was imperative that they be given the old oil, because she was in the middle of a very tricky business deal with the male half of the sketch and at such times every little helps.
†b. Phr. to hold or bear up oil: to use flattering speech, flatter. Obs.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 447 A greet deel of hem..hilde up þe kynges oyl [L. magna convivantium parte assentiente]. 1390Gower Conf. III. 172 Prophetes false manye mo To bere up oil, and alle tho Affermen that which he hath told. 1399Langl. Rich. Redeles iii. 186 For braggynge and for bostynge and beringe vppon oilles.
c. to add (put) oil to the fire, flames, etc.: to heighten or aggravate fury, passion, or the like; to ‘add fuel to the flame’.
a1548Hall Chron. (1809) 820 There were also certaine other malicious and busye persones who added Oyle..to the Fornace. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 229 As the common saying is, powred oyle vpon the fyre. 1647Cowley Mistress, Incurable iv, But Wine, alas, was Oyl to th' fire. 1822Scott Pirate iv, Serving only like oil to the flame.
d. In various phrases referring to the use of an oil-lamp for nightly study; e.g. † to lose one's oil, to study or labour in vain (obs.); to smell of oil, to bear marks of laborious study; to burn the midnight oil, to study late into the night.
a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V, 35 b, That thei were like to lese bothe worke and oyle. 1576Newton Lemnie's Complex. Epistle, None of indifferent iudgemente, shall thinke his oyle & labour lost. 1650Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. (ed. 2) To Rdr. 3 A work of this nature..should smell of oyle if duly and deservedly handled. 1650G. Daniel Trinarch., Crastini Anim. 16 As were that worth our Braines, and Midnight Oyle. a1668Denham Poems 47 What from Johnson's oil and sweat did flow. 1675E. Wilson Spadacrene Dunelm. 72 That work needs not smell of Oyl. a1763Shenstone Elegies xi. 27, I trimm'd my lamp, consum'd the midnight oil. 1812Edin. Rev. XX. 227 He may have..wasted the midnight oil in preparing..instruction.
e. to pour oil upon the waters, etc.: to appease strife or disturbance; in allusion to the effect of oil upon the agitated surface of water. (Cf. oleic, quot. 1894.)
[1774Phil. Trans. LXIV. ii. 445 (heading) Of the stilling of Waves by means of Oil. Extracted from sundry Letters between Benjamin Franklin LL.D. etc. Ibid. 447 Pliny's account of a practice among the seamen of his time to still the waves in a storm by pouring oil into the sea.] 1847W. B. Baring in Croker Papers (1884) III. xxv. 103 Lord G. [Bentinck]..spoke angrily. D'Israeli poured oil and calmed the waves. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. v. i. (1866) 663 The fiery words of Don John were not as oil to troubled water. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset II. xiii, Then Mrs. Grantly..strove to change the subject, and threw oil upon the waters.
f. to strike oil (orig. U.S.): lit. to reach the oil (petroleum) in sinking a shaft for it through the overlying strata; hence fig. (colloq.), to hit upon a source of rapid profit and affluence.
1862Amer. Ann. Cycl. 1861 580/1 The oil, when first struck, has..been known to burst forth with great violence. 1866Punch's Almanack (last page), Barber has struck ‘Ile’, but it will not do for the hair. 1875Punch 6 Mar. 99/2 He has certainly ‘struck oil’ in the Costa Rica and Honduras loans. 1888Lowell Wks. (1890) VI. 207 We are a nation which has struck ile. 1930‘Sapper’ Finger of Fate 180 The general consensus of opinion was that if his cricket was up to the rest of his form, Bob had struck oil. 1936W. S. Maugham Cosmopolitans 266 He'd struck oil a year or two ago and now he's got all the money in the world. 1973N. Graham Murder in Dark Room xiii. 94 You stopped with Scherz. I went a little further back and struck oil. 1975Times 7 Oct. 5/2 When oil is struck..the oilman needs samples for laboratory analysis.
g. In humorously allusive phrases, imitating the names of kinds of oil (see 2, and cf. anoint 3 b, 5, grease v. 4 b, oil v. 2): † oil of angels (angel n. 6), gold employed in gifts or bribes (cf. Indian oil); oil of barley, oil of malt, malt liquor; oil of baston, birch, hazel, holly, whip, hazel oil, hickory oil, stirrup oil, strap oil, a beating or flogging (with a birch-rod, hazel-stick, etc.); † oil of fool, flattery used to befool a person (obs.).
1592Greene Upst. Courtier E j b, The palms of their hands so hot that they cannot be coold vnlesse they be rubd with the oile of *angels. 1623Massinger Dk. Milan iii. ii, I have seen..his stripes wash'd off With oil of angels.
a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Oyl of *Barley, strong Drink.
1608Withals Dict. 308 They call it vulgarly the oyle of *Baston, or a sower cudgell.
1828Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Oil of *birch, a flogging with a birchrod.
1785Wolcott (P. Pindar) 9th Ode to R. A.'s, Reynolds..prithee, seek the Courtier's school And learn to manufacture oil of *fool. c1678Oil of *hazel [see hazel1 1 e]. 1825,1894*Hazel-oil [see hazel1 4 c]. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Oil-of-hazel, a sound drubbing.
1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 168 If I'd behaved that way with my father he would have prescribed a little *hickory oil.
1608Pennyless Parl. in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park) I. 183 The oil of *holly shall prove a present remedy for a shrewd housewife.
c1648–50R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. title-p., The oyle of *malt and juyce of spritely nectar Have made my Muse more valiant than Hector.
1693Poor Robin (N.), Now for to cure such a disease as this, The oyl of *whip the surest medicine is.
h. oil and vinegar: lit. used together as condiments; fig. said of two elements or factors which do not agree or blend together, or of any two incongruous constituents, with reference to the incompatible characters of oil and vinegar when mixed.
1629J. Parkinson Parad. ii. xxxvi. 503 The first shootes or heads of Asparagus..being boyled tender, and eaten with..oyle and vinegar. 1747H. Glasse Art of Cookery i. 11 The French eat Oil and Vinegar with it [sc. broccoli]. 1777R. Potter tr. æschylus' Agamemnon in Tragedies 232 Pour thou oil In the same vase and vinegar, in vain Wou'dst thou persuade th' unsocial streams to mix. 1820Keats Let. June (1931) II. 537 Men get such different habits that they become as oil and vinegar to one another. 1845Thackeray Leg. Rhine ix, in George Cruikshank's Table Bk. Sept. 194 Oil and vinegar, which he took with cucumber to his salmon. 1910Blackw. Mag. Oct. 562/2 We might as well try to blend vinegar and oil, as mix together these two elements in one chamber. 1930A. P. Herbert Water Gipsies x. 120 ‘Why shouldn't our class marry his class?’ ‘It's oil and vinegar. They don't mix.’ 1977D. Clark Gimmel Flask iii. 58 Your double oil and vinegar bottle.
i. Money; spec. money given in order to bribe or corrupt; a bribe. U.S. slang.
1903A. H. Lewis Boss 121 The sooner we get th' oil, th' sooner we'll begin to light up. 1935Detective Fiction Weekly 31 Aug. 118/1 She didn't take care of her protection directly, that is, she didn't slip the oil to the cops herself. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 87 Oil, graft, pay-off to authorities.
j. Austral. and N.Z. slang. Information, news, the true facts, esp. in phr. dinkum oil (see dinkum a.).
1916, etc. [see dinkum a.]. 1919W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 36 Oil—News; information. 1930Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Jan. 50/1 On a prospect..Old bloke what died gave me the dinkum oil. 1930L. W. Lower Here's Luck x. 84 We get the dinkum oil off him. 1944J. H. Fullarton Troop Target ii. 18 ‘What's the oil, Noel?’ ‘Yes, spill it.’ 1946F. I. Cooze Ten Bob Each Way 22 I'll give you the oil according to Hoyle. 1946J. D. Woods in Coast to Coast 1945 33 You'd better play a hand or two..and get the oil about the place. 1948V. Palmer Golconda xvi. 133 If anything were afoot, he told himself, Mahony would be sure to have the real oil about it, and he himself had a right to any inside information that was going. 1965Telegraph (Brisbane) 5 July 8 The good oil, the drum, the griff.
4. a. = oil-colour. Often in pl. oils.
[1574in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 351 The..payntinge and coloringe..wth good colors and oyles. 1594Plat Jewell-ho. iii. 51 To refresh the colours of olde peeces that bee wrought in oyle.] 1663Gerbier Counsel 84 Painters work of ordinary lights of windowes in oyl. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. II. iii. iv. 403 Landscape-painting in oils may be considered to have been by him [Poussin] brought almost to perfection. 1867Nat. Encycl. I. 857 Antonello de Messina..the first Italian who painted in oils.
b. An oil-painting, a picture painted in oils.
1852W. H. Oxberry in W. Davidge Footlight Flashes (1866) xii. 110 An original painting of my father, by Drummond, and a little oil, by W. Beverly. 1890Eng. Illustr. Mag. 272 Some fair oils by German artists. 1892Pall Mall G. 28 May 5/1 Visitors to the studio will also find some thirty or forty small oils of dogs. 1912W. Owen Let. 26 Jan. (1967) 111, I herewith send a representation of my outward man; I[t] does not please me; nothing will, unless it were an oil by Sargent. 1938W. T. Walsh Philip II xxviii. 573 One of the artists he employed was..Domenico Theotocópuli, whom he engaged to do a large oil of the martyrdom of St. Maurice. 1967N. Freeling Strike Out 27 Over the chimney-piece was a large oil of three splendid horses. 1977D. MacKenzie Raven & Kamikaze iii. 39 A blackframed oil of a Labrador.
5. colloq. abbrev. of oilskin. Chiefly in pl.
1891J. Dale Round the World 330 A young man dressed us in a full suit of ‘oils’.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. attrib. Of, consisting of, pertaining to, or dealing with oil, as oil-broker, oil-brush, oil change, oil company, oil-cooper, oil dilution, oil-dregs (hence oil-dreg vb., to treat with oil-dregs), oil-fuel, oil-globule, oil-merchant, oil-minister, oil-monger, oil-mongery, oil immersion, oil impregnation, oil magnate, oil-particle, oil-patch, oil priming, oil reserve, oil revenue, oil-room, oil sheikh, oil storage, oil supply, oil tannage, etc.; containing or conveying oil, as oil-bomb, oil bottle, oil bunker, oil-canakin, oil-car, oil-cell, oil-closet, oil-cock, oil-drum, oil-duct, † oil-fat, oil-feed, oil filter, oil-horn, oil-jar, oil-ladle, oil-pan, oil-pot, oil-pump, oil-safe, oil shell, oil-sink, oil-sump, oil-tank, oil-valve, oil-vase, oil-vat, oil-vessel, etc.; producing, or used in the production or distribution of oil, as oil depot, oil district, oil-factory, oil industry, oil-land, oil platform, oil refinery, oil-region, oil-shale, oil sheikdom, oil-shop, oil show [show n.1 5 c], oil state, oil terminal, oil-well, oil-works, etc.; obtained or made from oil, as oil gas, oil spirit; in which oil is used as fuel, etc., as oil-cooker, oil-engine, oil-heater, oil-lamp, oil-launch, oil-motor, oil-stove; belonging or relating to oil-painting, painted in oils, as oil group, oil head, oil picture, oil portrait, oil sketch, oil-work.
b. Objective and obj. gen., as oil-bearing, oil-carrying, oil-containing, oil-distributing, oil-producing, oil-refining, oil-retaining, oil-yielding adjs.; oil-burning ppl. a. and vbl. n.; oil-cracking, oil-drilling, oil-raising, oil-sinking, oil-throwing vbl. ns.; oil-atomizer, oil catcher, oil-cooler, oil-crusher, oil-distributor, oil-drawer, oil-dripper, oil-feeder, oil gusher, oil-refiner, oil separator, oil-spreader.
c. Instrumental, etc., as oil-bathed, oil-bound, oil-cooled, oil-filled, oil-foul, oil-hardening, oil-immersed, oil-impregnated, oil-mixed, oil operated, oil-primed, oil-proof, oil-quenched, oil-related, oil-rich, oil-sleeked, oil-stained, oil tanned; oil-bright, oil-buttered, oil-dried (dried of oil, having the oil dried up), oil-driven, oil-fed, oil-fired, oil-laden, oil-lit, oil-smelling, oil-soaked adjs.; oil cooling, oil-firing, oil quenching, oil tanning vbl. ns.; oil-harden vb. Also parasynthetic, as oil-bunkered, oil-engined, oil-tanked adjs.d. Similative, etc., as oil-like, oil-green, oil-yellow adjs.
1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 136 The particular causes and conditions of *oil-accumulation.
1932World Today LIX. 262/2 The camshaft and valve-gear as a whole are *oil-bathed.
1770–4A. Hunter Georg. Ess. I. 57 Rape and hemp are *oil-bearing plants. 1863Jrnl. Franklin Inst. LXXV. 271 The out-croppings of the lowest members of the Oil-Bearing Strata. 1946Nature 28 Dec. 932/1 In the search for similar oil-bearing structures, geophysical surveys have been extended over wide areas. 1977Times 9 Sept. 7/3 Mao Tse-tung..wanted Peking's parks to grow fruit and oil-bearing plants.
1918E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms 417 *Oil bomb, in trench warfare, a large oil drum containing oil and a quantity of high explosive, which dissipates the burning oil in all directions. 1947Illustr. London News 25 Jan. 117/1 The magnificent hammer⁓beam roof of Westminster Hall..was extensively damaged by an oil bomb in 1941.
1945Archit. Rev. XCVII. 42 Apart from the roof the remainder of the external steel finish is *oil-bound paint. 1963House & Garden Feb. 77/2 Oil-bound distempers, in which the binding material is an emulsion of oil or varnish, are more correctly called water paints.
1863National Almanac & Ann. Rec. 687/2 A leading Liverpool *oil-broker. 1977Yellow Pages Classified Telephone Directory: London (North) 250/2 Oil Brokers.
1958Engineering 28 Mar. 395/3 The closing of the Canal resulted in a sharp increase in the prices of *oil bunkers.
1909Times Lit. Suppl. 3 June 205/2 A plutocrat..who could quell the North Sea with *oil-bunkered Dreadnoughts.
1886Marine Engineer VII. 283/2 The *oil-burning apparatus has been fitted. 1898Railway Mag. Sept. 246/1 If the atmospheric conditions of the tunnels serve as an excuse..why not use oil-burning locomotives? 1920E. C. Bowden-Smith Oil Firing for Kitchen Ranges iv. 89 With regard to filtering the oil, this depends a great deal on the oil-burning system and the class of burner. 1924Domestic Engineering XLIV. 191/2 The development of oil burning for land purposes has been retarded by the fluctuations in the price of oil. 1960G. J. Gollin in W. F. B. Shaw Domestic Heating viii. 134 (caption) A complete oil-burning boiler installation. 1961V. C. Miles Domestic Vapouriser Burner Pract. vii. 83 The vapourising type burner is being used in increasing quantities for the conversion of solid fuel boilers to oil burning.
1598E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 29 Hence with these fidlers whose *oyle-buttred lines, Are Panders vnto lusts.
1843L. M. Child Lett. from N.Y. xl. 273 Children are driving hither and yon, one with a..band-box, or *oil-canakin. 1876J. S. Ingram Centenn. Exposition 336 The oil..was loaded by gravity upon *oil cars. 1897Kipling Day's Work (1898) 222 There were oil-cars, and hay-cars and stock-cars full of lowing beasts.
1850Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) 331 The complete hanger or pillow-block, with or without the *oil-catcher. 1884Rep. Comm. Agric. (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 363 When the cellular structure of the rind has completely developed, and the *oil-cells have begun to fill. 1959Motor Manual (ed. 36) x. 239 A second *oil-change should be made before many hundreds of miles have been run. 1976H. MacInnes Death Reel xii. 105, I am putting my car in for an oil change.
1827J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. VII. 177 A prohibition of gas-lights might be called..protection to the *oil-companies. 1951in M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 116/2 It's an oil company spending more money to make a better motor oil. 1974E. Ambler Dr. Frigo i. 53 One oil company would be bad enough. A consortium of five..must be quite oppressive.
1932E. Bowen To North xxiv. 231 She went into the scullery; here the *oil-cooker was potent; she opened the window. 1977J. Thomson Case Closed vi. 81 A leanto scullery..that contained the sink and an oil-cooker.
1904A. F. Berry in M. Maclean Mod. Electr. Pract. II. i. vii. 79 Those [manufacturers] who use a shell-type *oil-cooled construction of transformer..keep the temperature of part of the coils as nearly as possible at the temperature of the oil by spreading out the coils. 1962Science Survey III. 89 (caption) The magnet weighs 750 tons and is energised by oil-cooled copper windings. 1973R. W. Sillars Electr. Insulating Materials x. 205 Oil-cooled power equipment..requires a medium which is fluid at all climatic and operating temperatures.
1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 590/1 *Oil cooler, a small air-cooled radiator, used in aircraft and racing cars, for cooling the lubricant after its return from the engine and before delivery to the oil tank.
1911Bohle & Robertson Transformers iv. 61 Another disadvantage of *oil-cooling is the fact that if a fault occurs necessitating the withdrawal of the oil and the removal of the transformer it is frequently necessary to rewind the coils. 1970J. Shepherd et al. Higher Electr. Engin. (ed. 2) ix. 278 For larger transformers oil cooling is needed, especially where high voltages are in use.
1705Lond. Gaz. No. 4174/4 An Apprentice to an *Oyl-Cooper in London.
1929Times 31 May 9/3 Notable advances are being made in the technology of *oil-cracking processes. 1954Encounter Sept. 34/1 Workmen in an oil-cracking plant in Oklahoma..got angry, because, in a collective bargaining session, the management had referred to them as semi-skilled.
1856Farmer's Mag. Jan. 35 The price of cake..gives a higher profit to the *oil-crushers.
1863*Oil depot [see oil derrick, sense 6 e]. 1970W. G. Roberts Quest for Oil xiv. 141 Even the small barge which plies up and down a big river to supply a local oil depot will have to have a crew.
1949Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) ii. 6 *Oil-dilution system, a system by which the oil can be diluted to assist cold starting.
1889Century Mag. Mar. 714/2 For pilot-boats *oil-distributers [sic] are valuable when boarding vessels in breaking seas. 1909Daily Chron. 17 Sept. 1/3 M. Blériot..was really thinking of the oil-distrubutor and the gauge showing the consumption of petrol.
1862Sci. Amer. 22 Feb. 122/1 This *oil district is peculiar in many respects. 1910Chambers's Jrnl. Nov. 752/1 The apparatus has..demonstrated its value to the oil-district.
1751T. Shapp in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 374 Tillotson..was a wet and dry-salter, or *oil-drawer in London.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 479 *Oildreggis mixt with cley.
Ibid. 482 Drie hit wel, and then *oyldregge hit efte. 1552Huloet, Oyle dregges, Muria, Amarica, Amurca.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 221 My *oyle-dride Lampe.
1937M. Huxley Let. 13 Oct. in A. Huxley Lett. (1969) 427 We have seen so much, including..*oil drilling. 1974Evening News (Edinburgh) 10 Apr. 13/7 The next generation of British oil-drilling experts will be trained and produced in Scotland.
1893Times 20 Mar., This *oil-driven locomotive is at once an innovation and a success. 1896Westm. Gaz. 17 Nov. 2/3 One of the modern oil-driven motors.
1909Daily Chron. 24 July 6/3 Two small *oildrums will be fixed beneath the plank. 1975Times 22 July 14/2 The white Anglo-Saxon bass oil drum player.
1896Westm. Gaz. 1 Dec. 6/3 The first exhibition of any *oil-engines in this country..in 1887 in the Agricultural Hall.
1913Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 31/1 *Oil-engined ships are..being built. 1924Times Trade & Engin. Suppl. 29 Nov. 250/3 The large oil-engined liner.
13..S. Eng. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779) in Herrig Archiv LXXXII. 396/124 A whit coluere..brouȝt an *oyl-fat in here bele.
1870A. S. Evans Our Sister Republic ii. 50 The watchmen..with muskets in their hands, and great *oil-fed lanterns by their sides. 1886Chambers's Jrnl. 16 Jan. 47/2 A vessel..propelled entirely by oil-fed furnaces. 1905Westm. Gaz. 15 Feb. 8/2 It has a horizontal engine,..forced oil-feed, automatic carburation, [etc.].
1900Conrad Ld. Jim vi. 74 He set the log for me; he..put a drop of oil in it too. There was the *oil-feeder where he left it nearby. 1904A. F. Berry in M. Maclean Mod. Electr. Pract. II. i. vii. 78 If a fire breaks out in the *oil-filled tank itself, the latter may be run out into the air. 1930Engineering 24 Jan. 100/3 Various special designs, including the 132-kv. single-core oil-filled cables, which..are shortly to make their appearance in this country. 1957W. J. John Mod. Electr. Engin. I. iv. 126/1 In order to overcome the fire risk in oil-filled equipment, some attention has been paid to the use of chlorinated diphenyls.
1907Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 713/3 *Oil Filters... For filtering oil that has been used and become dirty, thus rendering it available for use again. 1925Morris Owner's Manual ii. 28 Unscrew the large plug at the bottom of the sump, when the oil filter, which is attached to it, may be withdrawn. 1977Belfast Tel. 22 Feb. 26/8 (Advt.), Oil filters for all cars.
1886A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 137, I will now give you the whole philosophy of *oil-finding and oil-production.
1900Engineer 22 June 651/1 It is coke instead of *oil-fired. 1932Discovery Aug. 248/2 In the oil-fired..liner high-class labour can be employed in the stokehold. 1961I. Murdoch Severed Head xxi. 168 The famous oil-fired central heating seemed to be making little impression on the temperature of the room. 1970V. Canning Great Affair v. 74 Aga oil-fired stoves in the kitchen.
1903Work 11 July 364/1 The two firemen to be carried for coal burning would probably be reduced to one, there being little labour in *oil firing. 1963Times 12 Feb. 1/7 (heading) Trouble-shooting in oil-firing.
1931W. Faulkner Sanctuary xvi. 112 The white men sitting in tilted chairs along the *oil-foul wall of the garage.
1888Pall Mall G. 23 Apr. 11/1 *Oil-fuel boats, and life-saving apparatus.
1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 79 *Oil Gas,..that obtained from oil. 1958Times Rev. Industry June 70/2 To build a..catalytic oil-gas process plant.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Vne buire à mettre l'huile, an *oyle glasse, a vyole.
1845Budd Dis. Liver 207 Some cells contain small *oil-globules, marked by the clear rings.
1673Lond. Gaz. No. 845/4 One *Oyl green Carpet. 1843Portlock Geol. 214 Of a fine oil green, or greenish-white colour.
1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 12 Oct. 9/7 One *oil gusher in the new Fort Norman field, Northern Canada, produces 1,500 barrels a day. 1973C. Callow Power from Sea i. 13 The big oil gushers being found in the North Sea.
1904Electrochem. Industry Feb. 51/1 The usual method [for producing sorbite in steel] has been to reheat and *oil-harden.
1890Nature 18 Sept. 503/1 This process of *oil-hardening, introduced first by Lord Armstrong in the case of barrels, is now almost universally adopted for all gun forgings.
1895Montgomery Ward Catal. 424/1 *Oil Heater..will comfortably warm a large room in very cold weather. 1972P. Ruell Red Christmas i. 10 The presence inside [the vehicle] of a small oil-heater and a lot of travelling rugs cheered him up.
1535Coverdale 1 Sam. xvi. 13 Then toke Samuel his *oyle horne, & anoynted him. a1661B. Holyday Juvenal 136 That makes with his great oil-horn much a do.
1930Engineering 9 May 599/3 Both sets of transformers are of the *oil-immersed type. 1955Gloss. Terms Radiology (B.S.I.) 34 Oil-immersed tube, an X-ray tube designed for operation in oil.
1883Encycl. Brit. XVI. 268/1 A given angle in a water or *oil immersion objective represents a much larger aperture than does the same angle in an air-objective. 1964M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) xiv. 232 Growth may be obvious under the oil-immersion lens within 24 hours.
1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 591/1 *Oil-impregnated paper, used for low and high voltage cables; the oil has resin in it to increase viscosity at working temperatures. 1946Nature 28 Dec. 931/2 Such indications include seepages, gas-escapes, *oil-impregnations, elaterite veins, and bituminous coatings in fractures and joints.
1880Harper's Mag. Dec. 65 The *oil industry has lent a powerful hand to the iron industry of Pittsburgh. 1951in M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 114 Competition is just as much a part of the oil industry as wells or refineries.
1851Melville Moby Dick I. xx. 155 This excellent hearted Quakeress..with a long *oil-ladle in one hand.
1813E. Weeton Jrnl. of Governess (1969) II. 92 A painted glass cylinder..intended to contain within it, either an *oil lamp or a candle. 1831Brewster Nat. Magic xiii. (1833) 323 A small oil-lamp on the floor. 1962L. Davidson Rose of Tibet iii. 56 A dark and malodorous shack, lit by oil lamps.
1605Timme Quersit. i. xv. K iij b, Sulphur..the natural, moist, original, *oylelike.
1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. I. xv. 264 A dim, *oil-lit street. 1974G. Jenkins Bridge of Magpies vii. 107, I went down..to the shabby oil-lit cabin.
1927U. Sinclair Oil! 312 Mountains on every side, and the *oil magnate owned everything in sight.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. Tab. 274 Olyuys, putacioun, and *oil makynge.
1837Whittock, etc. Bk. Trades (1842) 349 Another species of *oil-merchants deal mostly in sweet oils, and a few leading articles of foreign produce, termed dry saltery.
1974Atlantic Monthly Sept. 20 At the June meeting of OPEC in Quito, Ecuador, the Shah's *oil minister, Jamshid Amuzegar, blocked a move by Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil by $2 on the posted price of $11.65 per barrel. 1986Economist 26 Apr. 76/1 After 17 days yakking in Geneva's Intercontinental Hotel, OPEC's 13 oil ministers conceded the obvious on April 21st: they have lost the power to reverse this year's collapse in the oil price.
1912Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 287/2 *Oil-mixed concrete is best made by mixing the cement, sand, and water to a mortar, adding the oil to the mixture, [etc.].
1896Daily News 16 Nov. 4/2 The Daimler *oil-motors..were strongly in evidence.
1946Happy Landings (Air Ministry) July 3/3 *Oil operated propellers are liable to ‘run away’ if the oil congeals.
1908Westm. Gaz. 16 Apr. 4/3 Special *oil-pans are fitted on each end of the throw for scooping up the oil from the base-chamber. 1955W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vii. 642 The paving hardpacked with that snow, its whiteness..spotted and streaked from leaking oil-pans. 1965M. Bradbury Stepping Westward viii. 399 A floor covered with *oil-patches. 1973C. Callow Power from Sea iii. 75 There was a conspiracy of silence among the oil companies working in the ‘oil patch’ at this time.
1786J. Woodforde Diary 4 Mar. (1926) II. 229 Rec'd an *oil Picture from my Nephew Saml. from London. 1862Thornbury Life Turner I. 258 His early oil-pictures were dark and heavy.
1973Glasgow Herald 7 Aug. 11/7 The *oil-platform proposals. 1974Evening News (Edinburgh) 12 Apr. 7/4 The public inquiry into the proposal to build giant concrete oil platforms at Drumbuie, Loch Carron, has ended after 43 days of speeches and evidence.
1939Wyndham Lewis Let. 15 Dec. (1963) 268, 1 *oil-portrait and half-a-dozen chalk or pencil portraits.
c1440Promp. Parv. 364/1 *Oly potte, or oly vesselle. 1669R. Montagu in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) I. 448 A vinegar pot, oil pot, and sugar box.
1934H. Hiler Notes Technique Painting iii. 157 The ordinary *oil-primed canvases. Ibid. i. 67 May be primed with an *oil priming.
1845Stocqueler Hand-bk. Brit. India (1854) 37 Corn, cotton, *oil-producing plants, and sugar. 1959Daily Tel. 13 Mar. 1/6 The Arab oil-producing countries. 1974Times 21 Sept. 2/6 Scottish oil..could easily be undercut if the oil-producing states chose to lower their posted price.
1880English Mechanic 24 Sept. 75/2 (heading) *Oil-proof cement. 1906Daily Chron. 29 May 5/4 The licensing authority should require motor bus proprietors to provide an oil-proof receptacle under the bonnet of each omnibus. 1914*Oil-quenched [see air-hardened ppl. a. (air n.1 II)]. 1943Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 53 Oil-quenched fuse, a liquid-quenched fuse in which the liquid is oil.
1937Discovery May 155/2 *Oil quenching..offers a uniform rate of cooling, without requiring the exercise of unusual care.
1910Chambers's Jrnl. Nov. 750/1 This engineer, who has made a deep study of *oil-raising methods.
1863*Oil refinery [see oil derrick, sense 6 e]. 1977Times 21 Nov. (Eastern Province Suppl.) p. ii/8 (caption) Ras Tannurah, the country's main oil refinery and port.
1862Prelim. Rep. 8th Census (U.S. Census Office) 72 The Pennsylvania *oil region. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 22 Nov. 2/5 The Pennsylvania oil-region. 1974Evening News (Edinburgh) 12 Apr. 11/4 Minister of State at the Scottish Office, Mr Bruce Millan, will tour *oil-related developments in the Northeast of Scotland and Shetland during a three-day visit next week. 1975Petroleum Economist Aug. 288/1 The Department of Energy,..expects that oil-related employment will increase as more companies enter the offshore market.
1950Chambers's Encycl. X. 619/2 Table III shows the distribution of ownership of *oil reserves. 1966P. O'Donnell Sabre-Tooth iii. 58 Kuwait..holds a quarter of the world's known oil reserves. 1977Listener 17 Mar. 335/3 Overseas companies..own around 60 per cent of the North Sea oil reserve in the British sector.
1907Westm. Gaz. 5 Dec. 4/2 The spring is..connected to the gear-box by an *oil-retaining universal coupling. 1962B.S.I. News Feb. 37 Bronze oil-retaining brushes and thrust washers for aircraft. 1975P. Somerville-Large Couch of Earth x. 184 We should be prepared to forego a week's *oil revenues. 1977Sunday Times 20 Nov. 53/4 Part of the oil revenue will have to be used to tackle some of Britain's deep-seated industrial problems.
1959Daily Tel. 13 Mar. 1/6 The *oil-rich sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf are still under British protection. 1975N. Luard Robespierre Serial iv. 16 The profile might have fitted any oil-rich Arab.
1877Harper's Mag. Dec. 34/2 The three boys in the *oil-room have used, of all grades of oil, twenty gallons less. 1886Boy's Own Paper 2 Oct. 11/3 Disagreeable smells, as if of a steamboat's lower regions, proved this to be the oil-room. 1934Discovery Apr. 88/2 The cost of *oil separators is less than it used to be, and some of the prominent shipping companies are willing to introduce them. 1969Gloss. Terms Vacuum Technol. (B.S.I.) 20 Oil separator, a device which reduces the loss of pump oil as droplets at the out-let.
1877A. H. Green Phys. Geol. ii. §6. 72 When Shales contain enough bituminous matter to be used for the manufacture of Paraffin they are called *Oil Shales.
1960Spectator 30 Sept. 493 Spiritual *oil-sheikhs waiting for their oil to be discovered. 1974Times 31 Jan. 18/5 The oil shaikhs put paid to that as club after club buckled before the fuel crisis.
1972Guardian 23 Feb. 2/1 Qatar is one of the smaller *oil sheikdoms.
1904Sci. Amer. Suppl. 9 Apr. 23641/3 *Oil shells, that is, shells containing oil, which should distribute their contents upon the waves wherever they might happen to fall, could, by means of a cannon, be projected some distance in advance of a moving ship.
1679Oates Narr. Popish Plot 32 Where they found an *Oyl-shop, which the said Groves bragg'd he fir'd. 1752Sir J. Hill Hist. Anim. 315 They generally purchase..the bottoms of the casks at our oil-shops.
1953Wilson & Metre in Sci. Petroleum VI. i. 122/1 Despite the wide distribution of *oil shows and much exploratory drilling, only two oilfields of commercial importance have been found. 1977Offshore Engineer May 8/1 (Advt.), All exploratory wells drilled—designated as either dry well, gas show, oil show, oilwell, gaswell, oil and gas well.
1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 47 *Oil sinks are formed in watch and clock plates so that..the oil is kept close to the pivot.
1961Aeroplane C. 127/2 A Cessna 180D has been specially fitted with equipment to keep holiday beaches clear of oil contamination... This process is known as ‘*oil sinking’ and has been developed in Germany.
1856D. G. Rossetti Let. 15 May (1965) I. 301 That *oil-sketch of the Queen and Page. 1977Times 14 May 16/5 Oil sketches by Landseer, as opposed to large finished paintings, were fetching {pstlg}10,000 and more a year or two back.
1952C. Day Lewis tr. Virgil's Aeneid iv. 78 His chin and *oil-sleeked hair set off by a Phrygian bonnet.
1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 173 It was the smell of smoke and *oil-soaked cloth.
1907Westm. Gaz. 11 Apr. 4/2 ‘Hygiene,’ the Lancet says, ‘would condemn the highly seasoned and *oil-stained meerschaum or briar pipe.’ 1944R.A.F. Jrnl. Aug. 291 His cap, battered flat and copiously oil-stained, stuck on the back of his head. 1976E. Ward Hanged Man xiii. 72 Quentin..took Wallace's oil-stained shoes.
1973Listener 22 Nov. 698/3 The *oil states are rich. 1974Times 18 Apr. 5/6 (heading) Few concessions from oil states at UN debate.
1906Conrad Mirror of Sea xxxi. 164 Petroleum ships discharge their dangerous cargoes and the *oil-storage tanks low and round with slightly-domed roofs, peep over the edge of the foreshore. 1973Times 1 Dec. 2/3 He lives in a cottage beside it, and spends his days servicing and maintaining his donkey and its four cylindrical oil storage tanks and logging the amount of oil.
[1865U.S. Pat. 45,957 17 Jan., Coal-oil stove.] 1880Harper's Mag. Aug. 400 *Oil stoves are objectionable because of the unpleasant odor of the fuel. 1884Health Exhib. Catal. 66/2 Pottery Oil Stoves. 1921Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 21 Oct. 6/6 (Advt.), Optimus oil stoves—solid brass, regular $10. 1933Dylan Thomas Let. 11 Nov. (1966) 58 The oil-stove shines like a parhelion. 1977A. Clarke Let. from Dead ii. 18 ‘Could we give him a bed, Angy?’.. ‘Of course. It'll have to be the front attic... I'll take one of the oil stoves up.’
1923W. Deeping Secret Sanct. ix. 85 A man was bending over one of the wings, pouring oil into the *oil-sump.
1909Q. Rev. Oct. 575 Depôt ships for destroyers, mother-ships for submarines, and *oil-supply vessels. 1974Evening News (Edinburgh) 10 Apr. 1/5, 27-year-old Spanish seaman decided to entertain women aboard a North Sea oil supply ship berthed at Leith last night.
1862U.S. Pat. 34,426 18 Feb., *Oil tank. 1923H. S. Bell Amer. Petroleum Refining 293 Corrosion in oil tanks occurs at three points. 1951Dylan Thomas Selected Lett. (1966) 352 O evergreen..*oil-tanked..cradle of Persian culture.
1903H. R. Procter Princ. Leather Manuf. xxiv. 384 We may apply some of the ideas which we have formed with regard to *oil-tannages to the action of fats upon tanned leather. 1948M. P. Balfe in Progress in Leather Sci. 1920–1945 III. xxiv. 496 The oil tannage gave a leather which absorbed water more rapidly and to a greater extent than the combination tannage, and showed a greater degree of separation of the fibres. 1950L. K. Mason Pipe Dreams about Leather & Saddles 15 Oil Tannage, or ‘shamoying’, used mainly for wash⁓leather sheepskins (‘chamois’) and the like.
1903L. A. Flemming Pract. Tanning 46 Sheep and lambskins *oil-tanned. 1953D. Woodroffe Leather Dressing vii. 80 Chamois or oil tanned leather is usually yellow, clothy and porous. 1972Materials & Technol. V. 411 Chamois or wash leather is the term applied to oil tanned products obtained from the flesh splits of sheepskins.
1903L. A. Flemming Pract. Tanning 410 *Oil tanning with Turkey-red oil. 1958C. Goerth tr. A. Kuntzel in F. O'Flaherty et al. Chem. & Technol. Leather II. xxviii. 426 Oil tanning produces a leather having characteristics quite different from all other types of tanning. 1975Petroleum Rev. XXIX. 387/3 The location of the *oil terminal was proposed by Orkney County Council. 1977Observer 24 Apr. 1/6 The blow-out occurred..just over 200 miles from the British oil terminal at Teesport.
1963Bird & Hutton-Stott Veteran Motor Car 101 Inadequate cooling and excessive *oil-throwing.
1901Sketch 17 July 498/1 Sand dropped into the *oil-valves.
1885J. S. Stallybrass tr. Hehn's Wand. Plants & Anim. 94 The numerous *oil-vases given as prizes at the games instituted by Pisistratus.
1472in Swayne Sarum Church-w. Acc. (1896) 5, ij *oylevates of silver.
1611Bible Transl. Pref. 3 A whole cellar full of *oyle vessels.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Oil-well, a dug or bored well, from which petroleum is obtained by pumping or by natural flow.
1611Coryat Crudities 25 Many goodly pictures of some of the Kings and Queenes of France..drawen out very liuely in *oyle workes. Ibid. 26 Pictures made in oyleworke vpon wainscot, wherein..the nine Muses are excellently painted. 1869Bradshaw's Railway Manual XXI. App. 117 Oil refiners... Works: British Oil Works, Saltney, near Chester. Victoria Oil Works, Collyhurst Road.
1843Portlock Geol. 214 Of a rich yellowish-green, or *oil yellow colour.
1887C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 76 The principal *oil-yielding seeds.
e. Special Combs.: oil age, an age in which oil is used extensively, esp. as a source of power; oil baron = oil king below; oil-beetle, a beetle of the genus Meloe, which exudes an oily liquid when alarmed; oil-belt, a zone containing oil-fields; oil-berg [after iceberg], a large body of oil floating in the sea; oil-berry, † (a) an olive; (b) ? a name for the fruit of the Oil-Palm (Elæis guineensis); oil-bird, name for various birds yielding oil; (a) the guacharo of the West Indies and S. America, Steatornis caripensis; (b) a frogmouth of Ceylon, Batrachostomus moniliger; (c) the fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis; oil-box, (a) a box in which oil is stored; (b) in Machinery, ‘a box containing a supply of oil for a journal, and feeding it by means of a wick or other device’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); oil-break a. (see quot. 1943); oil-bush [bush n.2], a socket containing oil in which an upright spindle runs; oil-butt, a butt (butt n.2) containing oil; also fig. (see quot. 1937); † oil-can, a can for holding oil; spec. = oiler 3; also (slang), a German trench-mortar shell (obs.); † oil-case = oilskin (obs.); oil-cellar, (a) a cellar for storage of oil; (b) a small reservoir for oil in a piece of machinery; oil circuit-breaker, an oil-break circuit breaker; † oil-clock [clock n.3] = oil-beetle; oil coal, coal from which oil is obtained; oil-coat, a coat of oiled cloth, an oilskin coat (cf. oiled 1 c, quot. 1672); oil-cup, a small vessel to hold oil for lubricating, either portable (= oiler 3), or attached to the machinery and acting automatically (cf. oil-box b, oil-cellar b); oil-derrick, a derrick or frame used in boring for mineral oil; also fig.; oil-drop, (a) name for the rudimentary umbilical vesicle in the eggs of some fishes; (b) a drop of oil; freq. attrib. with reference to an experimental method of measuring the electronic charge; oil-filler, (a) one who or that which fills a container with oil, (b) an aperture through which an engine is filled with oil; (c) a coat of oil-paint used to fill in areas of a painted surface; oil floor-cloth (see oilcloth); oil-garden, a garden of olives grown for oil; oil-gauge (-gage), a hydrometer for measuring the specific gravity of oils, an oleometer; oil-gilding, gilding in which the gold-leaf is laid on a surface formed of linseed-oil mixed with a yellow pigment (oil-gold size); oil-gland, a gland which secretes oil; spec. the uropygial or coccygeal gland in birds, which secretes the oil with which they preen their feathers; oil-gold (see oil-gilding); oil-hole, a small hole drilled in a machine, into which oil can be dropped for lubricating; oil-jack, a vessel with a spout, in which oil can be heated; oil-jacket, a seaman's jacket made of oil-skin; oil king, a magnate in the oil-trade; oil-meal, ground linseed cake; oil-paint, paint made by mixing a pigment with oil (= oil-colour); oil-painter, a painter in oils; oil-painting, (a) the action, or art, of painting in oils; (b) a picture painted in oils; also used in negative phrases to indicate an unprepossessing appearance; oil-palm, a palm tree yielding fruit from which oil is pressed, esp. Elæis guineensis, which is native to West Africa but widely cultivated in tropical regions; oil-paper, paper made transparent or waterproof by soaking in oil; oil-plant, any plant yielding an oil (usually with defining word, as castor-oil plant, croton-oil plant, etc.); spec. the gingili, Sesamum indicum; oil pollution, contamination with oil discharged from a ship; oil pool, an extent of rock in which oil is present throughout without interruption, forming a single reservoir; oil-press, an apparatus for expressing oil from fruits, seeds, etc.; oil-presser, one whose trade is to press oil from seeds, etc.; the manager of an oil-press; oil province, an extensive area containing a number of oil fields that are geologically related; oil-resin, used attrib. to designate a cooked varnish used on paintings, and in painting mediums; oil rig, a rig (rig n.6 3 a) employed in drilling for oil; oil-rubber, in Engraving, a roll of woollen cloth moistened with oil, used for cleaning plates, etc.; oil-sand, a stratum of sandstone yielding oil; also extended to any oil-bearing rock; oil shale, shale which contains kerogen and on distillation yields oil; oil-shark, any species of shark yielding oil, esp. Galeorhinus zyopterus of California; oil-sheet, a sheet made of oilskin or oil-paper; oil-ship, a vessel carrying whale-oil or fuel oil as cargo; oil-silk = oiled silk; oil slick, a film or layer of oil, esp. one floating on an expanse of water; so oil-slicked a.; oil-smeller (U.S.), a person who professes to discover oil-bearing strata for well-boring by the sense of smell; oil-soluble a., soluble in oil; oil spill, an escape of oil into the sea; oil-spot, (a) a marking on Chinese porcelain caused by deposition of iron in firing, used chiefly attrib. of Honan ware so marked; (b) on industrial glass (see quot. 1962); oil spring, a spring of mineral oil (with or without admixture of water); oil-stock Eccl., a vessel for containing holy oil; oil-strike orig. U.S., a discovery of an oil-field by drilling; oil string, the inner-most length of casing (tubing) in an oil well, extending down to the oil-producing rock; oil switch, an oil-break switch; oil-tanker, a vessel having special tanks for the conveyance of oil; a vehicle designed for carrying oil; oil-tawing, the process of tawing skins in oil, in the manufacture of oiled leather; oil-tempered a. (of steel), tempered by means of oil; oil-test, oil-tester, a contrivance for ascertaining some property of oils, as their flashing-point, burning-point, or lubricating quality; oil thrower (see quot. 1964); oil-tight a. [after watertight], of such a degree of tightness as to prevent oil from passing through; oil-tongued a., having an ‘oily’ tongue, characterized by smooth or flattering speech; oil trap (see trap n.); oil-tube, a tube conveying oil, as the vittæ in the fruits of Umbelliferæ; oil-water a., situated between or involving oil and water; oil-way, a channel for the admission of oil to lubricate a hinge or the like; oil whetstone = oilstone n.; † oil wort, ? a vegetable yielding oil, or eaten with oil (obs.). See also oil-bag, oil burner, etc.
1911Chambers's Jrnl. July 465/1 That was the beginning of the great *Oil Age.
1969M. Pei Words in Sheep's Clothing (1970) xx. 206 This favors Texas *oil barons, but not people who wear out their bodies and brains working for a living. 1974N. Marsh Black as he's Painted iii. 75 From the oil barons at the top to ex-business men at the bottom. 1976Time 27 Sept. 65/2 Since it was launched in 1973 by Reporter-turned-Lawyer Michael R. Levy, 30, Texas Monthly has taken on just about every sacred steer in the Lone Star State: college football, the Miss Texas Pageant, oil barons, the Texas Rangers, Dallas banks.
1658Rowland Moufet's Theat. Ins. 1016 In English it may fitly be called the *Oyl-beetle, or the Oyl-clock. 1879Lubbock Sci. Lect. 43 A small parasite..on one of the wild bees was the larva of the oil-beetle.
1865Harper's Mag. Apr. 563/2 The Canadian wells now flowing hundreds of barrels of oil are located on the borders of Lake Erie, far to the west of the so-called *oil belt. 1901Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 126/1 The exploitation of..the most prolific oil-belt of the world. 1904Dialect Notes II. 385 Oil-belt, the district including the supposed course of subterranean rivers of oil. 1966Economist 24 Sept. 1275/1 There are considerable areas of doubt about the performance in rough weather of ships over 300,000 tons... The danger of underwater damage to floating *oil-bergs with nearly 100 feet of ship below the surface is considerable. 1977Time 10 Jan. 53/3 No scientists are willing to forecast the effects of the oil now spreading seaward from the Argo Merchant. Most believe that if the globs of oil, called oilbergs because most of their mass is below the surface, continue to move east, the damage will be held to a minimum.
1382Wyclif Isa. xvii. 6 As the shaking out of the *oile berie [1388 the fruyt of olyue tre]. 1878H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. II. ix. 281 The oil-berry tree, the black ivory nut-tree, which might be made a valuable article of commerce.
1893Westm. Gaz. 27 Nov. 7/1 The *oil-bird of Trinidad, so called on account of its excessively plump, fat, not to say oily condition. 1893Newton Dict. Birds, Guacharo, the Spanish-American name of what English writers have lately taken to calling the Oil-Bird, the Steatornis caripensis of ornithologists.
1799Sporting Mag. XIV. 28 *Oil-boxes and hoop-fellied wheels are great improvements.
1904W. E. Warrilow in M. Maclean Mod. Electr. Pract. II. ii. i. 230 Figs. 482, 483 illustrate an *oil-break switch for large powers, this type being suitable for a working current of 500 amperes at a pressure of 2000 volts. 1943Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 62 Oil-break, applied to a switch, circuit-breaker or similar apparatus to denote that the circuit is opened in oil.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick III. xxix. 184 The cabin mess dined off the broad head of an *oil-but, lashed down to the floor for a centre-piece. 1937Partridge Dict. Slang 581/1 Oil-butt, a black whale.
1839Thackeray Major Gahagan ix, Their fall upsetting the..*oil-can. a1917E. A. Mackintosh War, the Liberator (1918) 156 ‘Look out, sirr,..oil can coming over.’ Instantly self-preservation reasserted itself. 1917A. G. Empey Over Top 302 ‘Oil Cans', Tommy's term for a German trench mortar shell.
1741Gentl. Mag. XI. 15 Tea in *oil-case bags. 1764Wesley Jrnl. 16 Jan., I was..persuaded to put on an oil-case hood.
c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 499 Me may also doon other diligence Aboute an *oilcelar, hit for to warme. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Oil-cellar, an oil-reservoir in the bottom of a journal-box.
1924W. A. Coates Choice of Switchgear v. 89 Only small, unimportant *oil circuit-breakers are operated by a hand lever directly upon the breaker itself. 1964E. A. Reeves Installation & Maint. Industr. Switchgear iii. 32 Medium-voltage oil circuit-breakers may be either incorporated in a cubicle or fitted on the outside of a metal-clad unit.
1873C. Robinson New South Wales 52 Deposits of brown cannel *oil coals and oil shales.
1653Flemings in Oxford (O.H.S.) I. 62 For an *oyle-coat and hatt-case..16–00. 1850Clough Dipsychus i. iv. 34 It falls from off me like the rain From the oil-coat.
1850Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) 233 The combination of the tight *oil cup with the axle. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Oil-cup. When portable, for oiling machinery, they are considered as Oilers. 1895Mod. Steam Eng. 39 Oil-cups for screwing into these openings may be purchased.
1863Boston Herald 16 Aug. 3/3 You see, in close proximity on every side, oil depots, oil refineries, *oil derricks. 1902‘Mark Twain’ Speeches (1910) 367 That long, lank cadaver, old oil-derrick out of a job. 1948Ada (Okla.) Even. News 2 July 1/3 The work scheduled for Friday called for the shooting of scenes at the oil derrick. 1976Scotsman 24 Dec. 6/3 Aberdeen District planning and building control committee yesterday granted planning permission for a 96-ft steel oil derrick which is to be built above a 1000-ft deep test well..near their manufacturing site on the Bridge of Don estate.
1885Science 22 May 425/1 The egg of the cod..buoyant, but without an *oil-drop. 1911Physical Rev. XXXII. 393 Instead of using oil drops he sucks into the observing chamber the metallic dust arising from the volatilization produced in a metallic arc. 1913Ibid. 2nd Ser. I. 218 Improvements which the ‘oil drop method’ introduced into the study of the Brownian movements. 1939X. Herbert in B. James Austral. Short Stories (1963) 115 The first sight that caught his eye was a row of sparkling oil-drops hanging from the face of yet another outcrop. 1946Nature 30 Nov. 786/1 Oil drops..entered the field and were illuminated by flashes of light. 1968M. S. Livingston Particle Physics ii. 13 The first precise measurement of the electronic charge came with the results of Millikan's oil-drop experiment in 1909.
1860Harper's Mag. June 8/1 New Bedford is the chief seat of the whaling interest... Here the gaugers, clerks, super-cargoes, *oil-fillers..ply their busy offices. 1927[see dip-stick, dipstick]. 1937[see guide coat]. 1972D. Bloodworth Any Number can Play xvi. 152 He..unscrewed the radiator cap..and then glanced at the oil filler.
a1756Mrs. Heywood New Present (1771) 258 Directions concerning *Oil Floor-Cloths.
1535Coverdale 1 Sam. viii. 14 Youre best londe and vynyardes and *oyle-gardens shall he take.
1847J. C. Maitland Historical Charades xv. 193 A gilder living in the village..explained to him the nature of *oil-gilding.
1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 271/2 The neck of the bird..can be made to apply the beak to the coccygeal *oil-gland. 1893Newton Dict. Birds s.v., Analysis of the secretion of the Oil-gland shews that its composition closely resembles that of the sebaceous product of Mammals.
1710Brit. Apollo III. No. 89. 2/1 Night Peices ought to be..in *Oyl-Gold, or Oyl-Lacker. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Oil-gilding, Oil-gold size, made of boiled linseed-oil and ochre.
1875Ure's Dictionary of Arts III. 1055 (s.v. Varnish) The assistant is then to lift up the *oil-jack..laying the spout over the edge of the pot.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick II. vii. 54 That worthy,..buttoned up in his *oil-jacket. 1898Contemp. Rev. Aug. 236 The Bill..might have suited the English oil dealers; it was too much for the American *oil kings.
1886C. Scott Sheep-Farming 51 Linseed cake, or *oil-meal as it is sometimes termed, is always relished by a sheep.
1790Roy in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 184 The French rods were covered with several coats of *oil-paint to prevent their imbibing the salt water. 1898Westm. Gaz. 17 Nov. 3/1 His splendid success in the use of oil-paint as an artistic material.
1765T. H. Croker et al. Compl. Dict. Arts & Sci. II. s.v. Enamel, Blue is made of the azure or lapis lazuli used by *oil-painters. 1842Ainsworth's Mag. I. 232 There are difficulties in the way of even our first oil-painters. 1891R. Fry Let. 4 Mar. (1972) I. 129 Raphael..is a fresco painter and not an oil painter.
1782H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (ed. 3) I. i. 11 note, Mr. Raspe..has proved that *oil-painting was known long before its pretended discovery by Van Eyck. 1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 76 Until the time of Correggio and Titian, the peculiar beauties of oil painting were unknown. 1862Thornbury Life Turner I. 351 In this first period Turner's oil paintings were bold and dark.
1930J. B. Priestley Angel Pavement ii. 64 ‘'Member him, Edna?—teeth sticking out a yard, and all cross-eyed.’.. ‘Still, we can't all be oil paintings.’ 1932N. Mitford Christmas Pudding iii. 39 The poor girl's certainly no oil painting. 1955L. P. Hartley Perfect Woman viii. 76, I may not be an oil-painting, but I'm all right in my way. 1966‘O. Mills’ Enemies of Bride i. 10 She's no oil-painting, so she wouldn't be besieged with offers. 1973Listener 23 Aug. 246/1 Mr Tillett was no oil painting, but he was a gentlemanly sort of man.
[1725H. Sloane Voy. Jamaica II. 113 (heading) The Palm Oil-Tree. 1731P. Miller Gardeners Dict. s.v. Palma. The Oily Palm grows in great Plenty on the Coast of Guiney..: But these Trees have been transplanted to Jamaica and Barbadoes, in both which Places they thrive very well... The Inhabitants make an Oil from the Pulp of the Fruit.] 1866Treas. Bot. 443/2 Elæis guineensis, the African *Oil Palm, which yields the celebrated palm oil, is a native of tropical Western Africa. 1907Freeman & Chandler World's Commercial Products 374 The well-known Oil Palm of the West Coast of Africa..furnishes two different oils. 1954R. E. Holttum Plant Life Malaya vi. 81 Oil palms are the next most important oil crop [after coconut] in Malaya. 1966E. J. H. Corner Nat. Hist. Palms xiii. 305 The fruit of the oil-palm is a drupe one and a half inches long, with pulpy, red or black wall or pericarp and a small, pointed stone. 1975T. C. Whitmore Trop. Rain Forests Far East xvii. 219/2 Western man introduced plantation agriculture, initially to grow spices, later to grow the other cash crops, with coffee, tea, rubber, and oil palm predominating.
1836–9Dickens Sk. Boz, Streets ii, The candle in the transparent lamp, manufactured of *oil-paper,..has been blown out.
1848tr. Hoffmeister's Trav. Ceylon & India 208 Sesamum (*oil plant), Ricinus (castor-oil tree). 1884Miller Plant-n., Arachis hypogæa,..Ground-nut or Earth-nut Oil-plant; Bassia longifolia, Ilpa, Illipoo, or Illupie oil-plant; Carapa guianensis, Carap, Crab, or Andiroba Oil-plant; Croton Tiglium, Croton-oil-plant; Ricinus communis,..Castor-oil-plant; Sesamum indicum,..Gingelly-, or Gingilie-, Oil-plant, Tit-, or Teet-, Oil-plant; S. indicum and S. orientale, Benne⁓oil-plant.
1922Times 15 June 2 (heading) *Oil pollution of the sea. 1973V. Canning Flight of Grey Goose iv. 67 Two great black-headed gulls that were recovering from the effects of oil pollution.
1903Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey No. 212. 68 The foregoing account of the Gulf Coastal Plain has been given in some detail in order that the geologic environment of the *oil pools might be readily understood. 1938Sun (Baltimore) 18 Jan. 1/3 Kilgore is in the heart of the vast east Texas oil pool, the world's largest. 1971I. G. Gass et al. Understanding Earth ix. 139/1 The oil-water interface in a sub-surface abiogenic oil-pool.
1715Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 65 On the right-hand you have the *Oil-presses, and other places for the Oil.
c1865Letheby in Circ. Sc. I. 105/1 Mr. Brotherton..is a large *oil-presser.
1926E. R. Lilley Oil Industry iii. 22 [The writer will use the term ‘province’ when referring to an area containing connected or related fields.] Ibid. 539/2 (Index), *Oil province. 1940Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXIV. 1024 The Pure Oil Company's discovery in Marshall County, in what is virtually a new oil province, may encourage other operators to venture farther into the unknown. 1975North Sea Background Notes (Brit. Petroleum Co.) 3 The North Sea..has now become one of the world's major offshore oil provinces.
1934H. Hiler Notes Technique of Painting iii. 163, I have used an *oil-resin medium for fifteen years. 1951R. Mayer Artist's Handbk. i. 31 Some of the earlier American uses of tempera and oil-resin glazes are mentioned on page 27.
1885Engineering 26 June 708/2 As I have referred to the Pennsylvanian *oil rig, a brief mention of its principle may not be out of place here. This machine is specially arranged for deep sinking. 1965M. Bradbury Stepping Westward viii. 391 They reached the section where the oil-rigs stand up. 1973Scotsman 12 Jan. (Tayside Suppl.) p. vii/2 (caption) Montrose from the air. A new quay and purpose-built base will service up to 12 oil rig supply ships. 1974BP Shield Internat. Oct. 17/2 It's the morning rush-hour to the North Sea oil rigs. 1975Times 16 Sept. 3 (heading) Puzzle of oil-rig divers' death from overheating.
c1790J. Imison Sch. Art II. 44 The tools necessary for engraving are, the *oil-rubber, burnisher, scraper, oil-stone, needles, and ruler.
1883Century Mag. July 330/1 When the *oil-sand is struck, the oil, mingled with gas, spurts up with great force. 1915C. Schuchert Text-bk. Geol. II. xxvii. 713 The oil and gas are stored in coarse, open-textured sandstones and conglomerates, and because of this the term oil-sand has come to be applied by drillers to all horizons yielding these volatile hydrocarbons. 1921G. H. Cox et al. Field Methods Petroleum Geol. 217 Because of the higher average porosity of sandstone, most ‘oil sands’ are true sandstones, but many are porous lime⁓stones. 1925A. B. Thompson Oil-Field Explor. I. ix. 426 Twenty or more workable oil sands have been encountered to 2,500 ft [in the Bibi-Eibat oil-field]. 1974Globe & Mail (Toronto) 23 May 8/3 Research is also progressing on development of a micro-organism that could be used in the reclamation of the Alberta oil sands, Dr. Kaneda said.
1873*Oil shale [see oil coal above]. 1919[see Boghead, boghead]. 1956Nature 4 Feb. 216/1 In 1858 Geikie was able to indicate to James Young, founder of the Scottish oil industry, the general distribution of West Lothian oil-shales. 1974‘ E. Lathen’ Sweet & Low xiv. 138 Yet another optimistic study of oil shale. 1975Petroleum Economist Sept. 349/2 Morocco is preparing to exploit its large oil shale deposits at Timahdit in the Middle Atlas Mountains.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick II. xxxix. 257 However curious it may seem for an *oil-ship to be borrowing oil on the whale-ground. 1911J. J. Abraham Surgeon's Log vi. 195 No one is allowed to smoke on board the oil-ships.
1783Cavallo in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 438 This slip of *oil-silk answers better than a piece of bladder or leather. 1870G. H. Lewes Jrnl. 14 Apr. in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1956) V. 90 Bought oil silk for compress. 1938Times 20 May 21/4 Oilsilk, that daughter of oilskin, has been developed into many types of mackintosh. 1965M. Thomas Grannies' Remedies 91 An envelope of wetted linen or cotton, oil-silk, and thick flannel.
1889Century Mag. Mar. 710/2 It had..formed an *oil-slick thirty feet to windward. 1918Sat. Even. Post 12 Oct. 90 The submarine when running close beneath the surface leaves what is known as an ‘oil slick’. That is, the oil that is discharged in the exhausts floats on the top of the water in tell-tale streaks... ‘Oil Slick’ is American terminology. The British Admiralty did not approve at first. 1950G. Hackforth-Jones Worst Enemy ii. 171 Meanwhile, no doubt, an ‘oil slick’ would be rising from the crumpled ballast tanks which must have suffered damage. 1973Guardian 19 May 12/3, 200,000-ton tankers..letting loose their oil slicks in some of the most profitable fishing grounds in the world.
1958Oxford Mail 15 Aug. 1/5 Wreckage picked up from the *oil-slicked section of the Atlantic by the searching ships. 1967L. Deighton Expensive Place xxvii. 164 The oil-slicked highway dared children and divided neighbours. 1976Leicester Mercury 14 Oct. 10/2 The grey waters of the Clyde closed slowly over the oil-slicked plates of the huge submarine.
1865J. H. A. Bone Petroleum & Petroleum Wells 20 A new class of people has sprung into existence under the cognomen of *oil smellers, who profess to be able to ascertain the proper spot for boring by smelling the earth. 1925Jrnl. Physical Chem. XXIX. 1206 A water-soluble emulsifying agent opposes the action of an *oil-soluble agent. 1935A. J. Norton in P. H. Groggins Unit Processes in Org. Synthesis xiii. 636 Strictly speaking, the oil-soluble resins are a subdivision of the thermoplastic resins. 1971Jrnl. Econ. Entomol. LXIV. 1399 (heading) Oil-soluble black dye in larval diet marks adults and eggs of tobacco budworm and pink bollworm.
1970Internat. & Compar. Law Q. XIX. 343 Compensating governments and tanker owners for the costs incurred in cleaning *oil spills. 1975Offshore Aug. 112/1 The company has been blocked from drilling for six years, initially by the moratorium imposed by the state following the January, 1969 oil spill. 1976Globe & Mail (Toronto) 16 Feb. 9/3 Adequate contingency plans to deal with oil spills, especially in the ecologically sensitive Mackenzie delta and Beaufort Sea areas, have not yet been developed.
1922A. L. Hetherington Early Ceramic Wares of China xviii. 124 The markings may assume quite a different appearance and silvery spots or ‘*oil spots’ may take the place of the golden-brown streaks. Ibid., A specimen with a Northern grey body and ‘oil spot’ glaze is shown in colour on Plate 38. 1934Burlington Mag. May 214/2 A black glaze diapered with silvery spots..the much-prized ‘oil-spot temmoku’. 1960H. Hayward Antique Coll. 203/1 ‘Oilspot’ glaze: some of the Chinese wares bearing so⁓called Honan brown and black glazes of the Sung dynasty bear attractive silver spots, caused by precipitated iron crystals. 1962Gloss. Terms Glass Industry (B.S.I.) 40 Oil spot, a mottled, circular mark caused by carbonization of oil on electric lamp bulb or valve forming equipment. 1971L. A. Boger Dict. World Pott. & Porc. 154/2 Some Honan wares have a body of buff or buff-white, or of white or grey white... The rare oil spot temmoku generally belongs to this group. Occasionally a rare tea bowl is found that is covered with small silver spots which are actually a silver-like reflection caused by the metallic luster of the brown. This is referred to by the Chinese as the oil spot glaze.
1762in Pennsylvania Mag. Hist. & Biogr. (1913) XXXVII. 174 Mullen brot me a Bottle of Oyle from ye *Oyl Spring at Mooskingum. 1832B. Davenport New Gazetteer 272/1 s.v. Franklin, The celebrated Oil Springs..rise from the bed of Oil creek [Pa.] and afford an inexhaustible supply of oil. 1839Z. Leonard Adventures 73/2 An oil spring, rising out of the earth. 1868Dana Min. (ed. 5) 725 The oil spring of Cuba, Alleghany Co., N.Y., called the Seneca Oil Spring,..was described by Prof. Silliman in 1833..as a dirty pool.
1897W. Walsh Secr. Hist. Oxf. Movem. viii. (1898) 248 The *oilstock of the Holy Chrism is kissed in place of the Pax.
1864Harper's Mag. Dec. 59/2 It is certain that great *oil-strikes are no longer looked for. 1973Scotsman 21 Feb. 1/5 Ultramar shares moved up 1p to 271½p on hopes of an oil strike.
1921W. H. Jeffery Deep Well Drilling xii. 346 When the drilling conditions, depth to the producing formation, etc., are known, the perforated casing is sometimes added to the *oil string before the well is drilled in. 1943Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXVII. 519 The usual range of oil-string lengths is from 4,500 feet to 5,000 feet where casing is set above the ‘pay’. 1946Mod. Petroleum Technol. (Inst. Petroleum) 85 In low-pressure wells the upper section of the smaller diameter casing, the ‘oil string’, is sometimes removed as a measure of economy, but in wells in which gas or oil under high pressure is expected, each string of casing extends to the surface. 1960C. Gatlin Petroleum Engin. xiv. 269/1 The final appearance of a typical completed well is shown in Figure 14.1. Note that three separate casing sizes are indicated: the surface pipe, the intermediate string, and the oil string.
1904Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engin. XXIII. 215 The design of the *oil-switch lends itself readily to operation by control from a distance. 1964E. A. Reeves Installation & Maint. Industr. Switchgear iii. 57 The type of oil switch described is essentially a fault-making and load-breaking device.
1920Isle of Man Weekly Times 21 Sept. 3 Kermode's supplied .. installations .. for .. British Admiralty *oil-tankers. 1926Brit. Gaz. 12 May 4/3 Many vessels have been docked and undocked, including oil tankers. 1927Daily Express 20 Sept. 2/4 The goods train consisted mainly of oil-tankers. 1965W. Soyinka Road 21 Have you known any other driver take an oil-tanker from Port Harcourt to Kaduna non-stop? 1967N. Freeling Strike Out 73 Dickie looks as poor as a rat on an oil-tanker.
1884Science 13 June 724/1 Bars of *oil-tempered and untempered steel.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Oil-test, for ascertaining the degree of heat at which the hydrocarbon vapors of petroleum are liable to explode.
1898Daily News 1 Oct. 7/2 Cement tester, *oil tester; apparatus for the testing of pressure and vacuum gauges and indicators.
1903*Oil thrower [see creepage]. 1964Dorian & Osenton Elsevier's Dict. Aeronautics 428 Oil thrower, a disk fixed on a shaft, so as to prevent oil from creeping along it, the oil being thrown off centrifugally.
1859Rankine Steam Engine (Cent.) An *oil-tight stuffing-box. 1972Practical Motorist Oct. 168/2 As the nut is tightened the neoprene ring is squeezed out to give an oil-tight seal.
1631Massinger Emperor East v. ii, The proud attributes, By *oil-tongued flattery imposed upon us.
1946Nature 26 Oct. 572/1 An interesting series of transparent 50 per cent *oil-water systems was described. 1964G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. iii. 70 The unfolding of protein molecules at air-water or oil-water interfaces must be briefly described at this point. 1971Oil-water [see oil pool above].
1840Archæologia XXIX. 62 An oblique perforation in the stone served as an *oilway to render its revolutions easier. 1601Holland Pliny II. 514 *Oyle whetstones that barbars vse.
1493Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 108 He ete but brede and *oyle wortes.
▪ II. † oil, n.2 Obs.
[An alteration of olio: perh. confused with It. olio oil.]
= olio 1.
1706Phillips, Oil or Olio (in Cookery), a rich sort of Potage after the Spanish way, made of Buttock-beef, part of a Fillet of Veal, of a Leg of Mutton, and of raw Gammon of Bacon, with Ducks, Partridges, Pigeons, Chickens, Quails, Sausages, and a Cervelas, all fry'd brown, and afterwards boil'd with all sorts of Roots and Herbs. Oils (for Fish-Days) are also prepar'd with Peas-soop, several sorts of Fish, Roots and Pulse. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., To have an Oil for Flesh-Days, take all Sorts of good Meats, viz. Part of a Buttock of Beef [etc.].
▪ III. oil, v.
[f. oil n.1]
1. trans. To apply oil to; to anoint.
†a. To pour oil upon ceremonially, esp. in consecrating to the office of king: = anoint v. 2. Obs.
c1440R. Gloucester's Chron. 7243 (MS. Camb. Ee 4. 31) Fram king alfred, þe kunde more, þat uerst was oyled [MS. Cotton Caligula A. xi. yeled] at rome. Ibid. 5329 (MS. Digby 205) Þe pope lyoun him blessede..And þe kinges croune of þis lond..Sette him on and oyled [earlier MSS. elede] him. c1580Sidney Ps. xxiii. iv, Thou oil'st my head, thou fill'st my cupp. 1764Churchill Gotham i. 337 Jehu, oil'd for Ahab's sin. 1851H. Melville Moby Dick (U.S. ed.) xxv. 124 A king's head is solemnly oiled at his coronation, even as a head of salad.
b. To put oil on; to moisten, rub, smear, or lubricate with oil; to rub (a person) with oil as a protection against sunburn (also refl.). Phr. to oil the wheels (also fig.).
to oil out, in Painting, to moisten (those parts of a picture intended to be retouched) with a thin coating of oil.
c1440Promp. Parv. 363/1 Oyle wythe oyle. 1598Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 169 Item, to William Glover, for oylinge and coloringe yt [an hour glass]. 1643Caryl Sacr. Covt. 13 Would he have the Chariot move swiftly, who..will not Oyle the Wheeles? 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 171 So oft as the Workman has occasion to oyl the Centers of the Work. 1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 201 This operation is termed ‘oiling out’. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. II. iv. xxxiii. 332 There's a bad style of humbug, but there is also a good style—one that oils the wheels and makes progress possible. 1884T. Speedy Sport v. 67 They should be wiped clean and free from damp, then..oiled. 1896C. M. Sheldon His Brother's Keeper ii. 39 Have you been greasing your boots with it?.. Half a pint wouldn't oil more than one of 'em. 1909Daily Chron. 6 Sept. 3/3 Her craze for the ‘psychic’..oils the wheels of the plot. 1941A. Christie Evil under Sun vi. 107, I oiled myself and sunbathed. 1945E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. ii. 43 Anthony had helped oil fading beauties on sub-tropical sands. 1972Mainichi Daily News (Japan) 6 Nov. 13/1 Advertisement [sic] is a powerful factor in boosting the economy in free countries and it is the strongest means of oiling the wheel of manufacturer-consumer relations. 1972‘G. Black’ Bitter Tea (1973) ix. 137 A cousin came over and oiled Sally's back. 1973A. Holden Girl on Beach 51 She changed into her swimsuit, oiled herself all over. 1976D. Francis In Frame xvi. 232 Our passage had been oiled by telexes from above. When we arrived..we found ourselves whisked into a private room. 1977‘A. Stuart’ Snap Judgement 178 He set the deal up... He was oiling the wheels for when Brigitte arrived with the secrets.
c. To cover the surface of (water) with a film of oil in order to kill mosquito larvæ.
1921M. Watson Prevention of Malaria (ed. 2) xvii. 190 When a clear pool containing the ordinary floating alga is ‘oiled’, the alga dies. 1952P. F. Russell Malaria 133 Water recently oiled is unfit for bathing. 1959A. A. Sandosham Malariology vi. 252 When oiling a ravine the seepages in which the ravine stream begins should get most attention.
2. fig.
a. to oil the hand (fist): to bribe (cf. anoint v. 3 b); also with the person as obj. Also, to oil the knocker: to bribe or tip a doorman. slang.
16022nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass. ii. ii. 601 Must his worships fists bee needs then oyled with Angells? 1652J. Wright tr. Camus' Nat. Paradox ix. 210 Speaking in private to the same Officer (whose hand he had already oyled). 1870Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable 632/1 To oil the knocker, to fee the porter. The expression is from Racine, On n'entre point chez lui sans graisser le marteau (No one enters his house without oiling the knocker)—‘Les Plaideurs’. 1901Daily Chron. 13 Aug. 6/7 Certain officials had to be ‘oiled’. 1901Farmer & Henley Slang V. 93/1 To oil the knocker, to fee the porter. 1968Gloss. Brit. Argot (Paramount Pictures), Oil the knocker, tip the porter or caretaker.
b. (a) To make ‘smooth’ or bland; to oil one's tongue, to adopt or use flattering speech. (b) To besmear with flattery, to flatter (= anoint v. 3 a).
1607Dekker & Webster Hist. Sir T. Wyatt D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 102 Hast thou betraide me? yet with such a tongue, so smoothly oilde. a1716South Serm. (1727) IV. ix. 387 No wonder if Error, oiled with Obsequiousness,..has often the Advantage of Truth. 1750Shenstone Rural Elegance 108 The reptile race, That oil the tongue, and bow the knee. 1887R. Buchanan Heir of Linne i, Oil my voice, and I'm your man.
3. a. To supply or feed with oil.
1614Sylvester Bethulia's Rescue v. 120 Bagos, too-apt,..Thus oyles the Fire, which but too-fast did burn. 1923Man. Seamanship (Admiralty) II. 80 The pumps in the oiler should be started gradually, attempts should not be made to oil individual tanks too rapidly.
b. intr. To take in a supply of oil.
1914H. H. Fyfe Real Mexico 201 Some day vessels will call here..to ‘oil’ just as they now ‘coal’. 1922Glasgow Herald 21 Oct. 11 After that the Renown only stopped to oil.
4. a. To convert (butter or grease) into oil by melting.
1759Ann. Reg. 66 The butter is oiled by hot water. 1842Barham Ingol. Leg., St. Cuthbert, And the fish is all spoil'd, And the butter's all oil'd, And the soup's got cold in the silver tureen.
b. intr. To become of the consistence of oil.
1741Compl. Fam.-Piece i. ii. 114 Take Care the Butter do not oil. 1796H. Glasse Cookery xi. 175 Boil all together and send it up immediately, or else it will oil. Mod. Add warmed butter, being careful not to allow it to oil.
5. colloq. To move or go in a quiet or stealthy manner; (const. in) to enter, (fig.) to interfere; (const. out) to depart, (fig.) to extricate oneself. Also const. other advbs.
1925Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves! vi. 139 As man to man, do you want to oil out of this thing? 1929― Mr. Mulliner Speaking i. 28 It would be a simple task to oil in, insert the soap, and buzz back undetected. 1930― Very Good, Jeeves! iv. 110, I..oiled round to where Jeeves awaited me. 1945‘A. Gilbert’ Don't open Door xix. 172 As soon as he was alone he'd oil out and they could think what they pleased. 1958― Death against Clock 119 She might oil in, and..clinch a bargain on the spot. 1963― Ring for Noose x. 119 He deserves to lose his licence, oiling off and leaving you on your tod. 1968G. Mitchell Three Quick & Five Dead i. 35 Do you think the girl was pestering for marriage, but that James wanted to oil out? 1977‘J. Le Carré’ Hon. Schoolboy xxii. 527 That twerp Enderby is oiling through the back door.
6. intr. to oil up: to clog up with oil.
[1925: see oiled-up s.v. oiled ppl. a. 5.] 1960[see foul v.1 1 b]. 1975Country Life 5 June 1470/1 In traffic..plugs oil up. And pedals are hard pressed to keep the engine alive. |