fuel oil

American

noun

an oil used for fuel, especially one used as a substitute for coal, as crude petroleum.

fuel oil British

noun

a liquid petroleum product having a flash point above 37.8°C: used as a substitute for coal in industrial furnaces, domestic heaters, ships, and locomotives

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The company has had to truck fuel oil to one of its mills, which has been without gas since Jan. 23.

From The Wall Street Journal

Energy Information Administration reports that national distillate fuel oil consumption is overwhelmingly concentrated in the transportation industry.

From MarketWatch

Other alternatives to fuel oil that have been used in commercial shipping—like methanol, ammonia and natural gas—are either in short supply, toxic to the environment or cut emissions by only around 25%.

From The Wall Street Journal

Turkey is the largest buyer of Russian oil products like diesel and fuel oil, and one of the largest of Russian crude after China and India.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023