\Char"coal`\, n. [See {Char}, v. t., to burn or to
reduce to coal, and {Coal}.]
1. Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal
   substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln,
   retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for
   fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical
   processes.
2. (Fine Arts) Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used
   as a drawing implement.
{Animal charcoal}, a fine charcoal prepared by calcining
   bones in a closed vessel; -- used as a filtering agent in
   sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant.
{Charcoal blacks}, the black pigment, consisting of burnt
   ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances.
{Charcoal drawing} (Fine Arts), a drawing made with charcoal.
   See {Charcoal}, 2. Until within a few years this material
   has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline,
   etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with
   it.
{Charcoal point}, a carbon pencil prepared for use in an
   electric light apparatus.
{Mineral charcoal}, a term applied to silky fibrous layers of
   charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous
   coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.