Mining

This page gathers the 508 dictionary entries belonging to the domain “Mining”, as labelled by Wiktionary. Each word leads to its full entry: definitions, etymology, pronunciation, examples. Page 1 of 5: from “above grass” to “craneman”.

1. above grass prep_phrase Above ground; on the surface.
2. activator noun An agent that enables the flotation of a mineral or minerals.
3. adit noun A horizontal or nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine, as contrasted with a shaft or vertical entry passage, used for…
4. afterdamp noun Suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp, consisting of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen…
5. airhead noun Alternative form of air-head (“a horizontal channel providing ventilation in a mine.”).
6. airshaft noun A passage supplying ventilation into a mine tunnel or other underground facility.
7. airway noun A roadway used for ventilation.
8. alligator noun A rock breaker.
9. apex noun The end or edge of a vein nearest the surface.
10. at the bank prep_phrase Alternative form of at bank (“on the surface”).
11. attle noun Rubbish or refuse consisting of broken rock inholding little or no ore; especially, the worthless rock left over once the ore has been…
12. auget noun A priming tube connecting the charge chamber with the gallery, or place where the slow match is applied.
13. back noun The roof of a horizontal underground passage.
14. back-overman noun A person employed to superintend the pit during the "back" or afternoon shift, in the absence of the overman.
15. bailiff noun The foreman or overman of a mine.
16. ball vein noun A sort of iron ore, found in loose masses of a globular form, containing sparkling particles.
17. bandsman noun A labourer (loader) working with a band of men.
18. bang noun An explosive product.
19. banjo noun A miner's round-nosed shovel.
20. bank noun The face of the coal at which miners are working.
21. banker noun Synonym of browman.
22. banksman noun Synonym of browman.
23. bar noun A drilling or tamping rod.
24. bar down verb To loosen mined ore in a cart using a bar in order to enable it to move through a chute.
25. barring noun Timber used for supporting the roof or sides of shafts.
26. barrow noun A heap of rubbish, attle, or other such refuse.
27. barrowman noun A putter: one who puts the tubs of coal from the workings to the cranes, flats, or stations, so that they can be conveyed to the surface.
28. basseting noun The upward direction of a vein in a mine.
29. bat noun Shale or bituminous shale.
30. beamwork noun A tin working where the lode was followed by digging down from the surface.
31. bedrock noun The solid rock found at some depth below the ground surface.
32. beeline noun A dynamite fuse made with a small quantity of dynamite powder along its length, so that the spark travels quickly and at a specific known…
33. bellbox noun A bell-shaped apparatus used to extract broken rods from the bottom of a mine shaft.
34. bellyscraper noun A piece of earthmoving equipment used to level land and build roads. A heavy equipment machinery with a blade on the bottom and a hopper on…
35. bend noun Hard, indurated clay; bind.
36. berm noun One of the flat terraces on the slope of an open-pit mine.
37. black jack noun Sphalerite.
38. black sand noun Sand high in magnetite and other iron-rich ferrous minerals, frequently found associated with placer mining.
39. black tin noun Tin ore (cassiterite), when dressed, stamped and washed, ready for smelting. It is in the form of a black powder, like fine sand.
40. blackwash noun Public campaigns and advertising funded by the coal industry to draw attention away from environmentally unsustainable practices or to…
41. blond metal noun A variety of clay iron ore, from Staffordshire, England, once used for making tools such as nails, axes and horseshoes.
42. blower noun A fissure from which firedamp issues, often in quantity for many years.
43. bluecap noun A tiny blue-skinned fairy that inhabits a mine and helps the miners.
44. bonanza noun A rich mine or vein of silver or gold.
45. bottomer noun A person employed to attend to the bottom of the shaft.
46. brace noun The mouth of a shaft.
47. brakeman noun A person employed to work the steam engine or other machinery that raises the coal from the mine.
48. brat noun A thin bed of coal mixed with pyrites or carbonate of lime.
49. brattice noun A partition in a coal mine, made from wood or from canvas sheeting coated in tar.
50. breast noun The face of a coal working.
51. brood noun Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.
52. brow noun A gallery in a coal mine running across the face of the coal.
53. brusher noun A person employed to cut or blast the roof or floor of a roadway and so give more height.
54. buck verb To break up or pulverize, as ores.
55. bucker noun One who bucks ore.
56. bully noun A miner's hammer.
57. bump noun A sudden movement of underground strata, preceded by a characteristic sound.
58. bunch noun An unusual concentration of ore in a lode or a small, discontinuous occurrence or patch of ore in the wallrock.
59. bunny noun A sudden enlargement or mass of ore, as opposed to a vein or lode.
60. burden noun The tops or heads of stream-work which lie over the stream of tin.
61. burghmaster noun An officer who directs and lays out the meres or boundaries for the workers.
62. butterfly noun A safety link or detaching hook above the cage attached to the winding rope to prevent the cage from being overwound.
63. buttocker noun A worker who gets coal off at a longwall face.
64. butty noun A miner who works under contract, receiving a fixed amount per ton of coal or ore.
65. buzzie noun A hand-held pneumatic drill used in mining.
66. cage noun The drum on which the rope is wound in a hoisting whim.
67. cager noun A person or machine responsible for managing a mineshaft cage.
68. cal noun wolfram, an ore of tungsten.
69. callow noun The upper layer of rubble in a quarry which has to be removed to reach the material to be mined.
70. case noun A small fissure which admits water into the workings.
71. cathead noun A (small) capstan (“vertical cylindrical machine that revolves on a spindle, used to apply force to cables, ropes, etc.”) or windlass…
72. cauldron bottom noun A large, round mass in a coal seam that forms part of the roof of a coal mine passage (usually being a fossilized root or stump)…
73. cave verb In room-and-pillar mining, to extract a deposit of rock by breaking down a pillar which had been holding it in place.
74. caver noun One who works the tailings of a mine to extract small pieces of marketable ore.
75. chat noun Mining waste from lead and zinc mines.
76. check weigher noun A person employed by the miners to check the weight of the mined material and thus ensure the proper wages were paid.
77. claggy adj Adhesive, having coal clinging to it.
78. clearer noun An unskilled labourer who clears away the rubbish etc.
79. coalface noun The surface of coal exposed by mining, or a part of a coal seam that is currently being mined.
80. cobbing noun The manual separation of minerals in ore using a hammer.
81. cockle noun The mineral black tourmaline or schorl.
82. coffin noun An exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.
83. cog noun One of the rough pillars of stone or coal left to support the roof of a mine.
84. collar noun A curb, or a horizontal timbering, around the mouth of a shaft.
85. collaring noun A piece of wood or iron for securing the pumps in a mineshaft.
86. color noun Gold, particles of gold found when prospecting.
87. comb noun A kind of vertical plate in a lode.
88. comby adj Formed of vertical plates, or combs.
89. comminution noun The breaking or grinding up of a material to form smaller particles.
90. concentrator noun An apparatus for the separation of dry comminuted ore, by exposing it to intermittent puffs of air.
91. contact noun The plane between two adjacent bodies of dissimilar rock.
92. corf noun A large basket, especially as used for coal.
93. corporal noun A worker in charge of the wagonway, reporting to the deputy.
94. costean noun A trench in solid rock intersected by pits which reveals mineral veins.
95. costeaning noun A process for discovering metallic lodes by sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from…
96. country noun The rock through which a vein of ore or coal runs.
97. country rock noun Rock that surrounds reefs or lodes of mined minerals, forming the walls and floors of quarries, or through which mine tunnels are driven.
98. cow noun A chock: a wedge or brake used to stop a machine or car.
99. cradle noun A machine on rockers, used in washing out auriferous earth.
100. craneman noun A boy employed to hoist the corves of coals on to the rolleys with the crane.

All domains · Search for a word