Oil
Alternative forms
- oyl obsolete
Origin
Middle English oile ("olive oil"), from Anglo-Norman olie, from Latin oleum ("oil, olive oil"), from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (elaion, "olive oil"), from á¼Î»Î±Î¯Î± (elaÃa, "olive"). More at olive. Supplanted Old English æle, also from Latin.
Full definition of oil
Noun
oil
(countable and uncountable; plural oils)- Liquid fat.
- Petroleum-based liquid used as fuel or lubricant.
- 2013-08-03, Yesterday’s fuel, The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices). It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber.
- An oil painting.
- 1973, John Ulric Nef, Search for meaning: the autobiography of a nonconformist (page 89)Yet, in another way, I was unable to put Picasso's oils in the same class as Cezanne's, or even (which will no doubt shock many readers) as Renoir's.
Derived terms
Verb
- (transitive) To lubricate with oil.
- 1900, L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Chapter 23:Before they went to see Glinda, however, they were taken to a room of the Castle, where Dorothy washed her face and combed her hair, and the Lion shook the dust out of his mane, and the Scarecrow patted himself into his best shape, and the Woodman polished his tin and oiled his joints.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 17, The face which emerged was not reassuring. .... He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
- (transitive) To grease with oil for cooking.