carburet

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Coined in 1788 by the translator of de Morveau, Lavoisier et al.'s 1787 book Méthode de nomenclature chimique James St. John as a translation and partial calque of French carbure, with the original (noun) sense displaced by carbide during amid-19th century. By surface analysis, carbon + -uret.

Noun

carburet (plural carburets)

  1. (chemistry, obsolete) A carbide.

Verb

carburet (third-person singular simple present carburets, present participle carbureting or carburetting, simple past and past participle carbureted or carburetted)

  1. (transitive, chemical, obsolete) To react with carbon.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To enrich an illuminating gas with carbon-rich fuel.
    • Where there may be objections to the use or application of the foregoing mode of using peat gas for illuminating purposes, I employ another method of obtaining that object, and which is to carburet the peat gas by means of charred peat, in the same way as I carburet the vapours of sulphur to educe a bisulphuret of carbon.
      William Benson Stones, an 1850 patent
  3. (transitive) To mix air with hydrocarbons, especially with petroleum, as in an internal combustion engine.

Derived terms

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