Forms: 4–5 fewaile, 5–6 -all, 5–8 -el(l, 4–5 fowayle, 5 -aly, -el(l, 4 Sc. fwaill, 4–7 fuell(e, 8 feuel, 7– fuel. [a. OF. fowaille, feuaile:—popular L. focālia, neut. pl. of focālis adj., f. focus fire: see FOCUS. In the mediæval Lat. of France and England focalia pl., focale or focalium sing., frequently occur in charters with reference to the obligation to furnish or the right to demand supplies of fuel.]
1. Material for burning, combustible matter as used in fires, etc.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. cix. (1495), 528. In many places the grounde is glewy: and of it they make good fuell.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvii. 126. Men … driez bestez dung and brynnez for defaute of fewaile.
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 385, in Babees Bk. (1868), 311. Fuelle þat schalle brenne In halle.
1548. Forrest, Pleas. Poesye, 347. Meate, clothe, and fewell withe the same to bye.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 497. Divers kinds of Coale, and earth fewell.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, III. i. 180. My Bed was the same dry Grass and Sea-weed which I intended for Fewel.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 381. Shrubs, which feed the camels and serve for fuel, are the only useful produce of those countries.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., iv. 98. The fuel to be used in furnaces is of three kinds, coal, coke, and charcoal.
¶ In the poem of Coer de Lion, which contains the earliest known examples of the word in Eng., it seems to be used for ‘victuals, provisions,’ perh. by a misinterpretation of the OF. phrase bouche et fouaille ‘meat and fuel,’ which seems to have been current as a general expression for the necessaries of life; cf. the quots. from Barbour below.
13[?]. Coer de L., 1471.
| ‘No man selle hem no fowayle, | |
| For no thyng that myght avayle.’ | |
| Ibid., 1545. | |
| Hys mareschal swythe com hym too: | |
| ‘Sere, he sayde, hou schal we doo? | |
| Swylk fowayle as we bought yistyrday, | |
| For no catel get I may.’ | |
| Rychard aunsweryd, with herte free, | |
| ‘Off froyt here is gret plenté!’ |
1375. Barbour, Bruce, IV. 64. The castell weill vittalit thai, With met and fwaill can purvay. Ibid., 170. [Thai] na wittaill na fwaill had.
b. fig.; esp. something that serves to feed or inflame passion, excitement, or the like.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. cxlvii. 3.
| Fresheth the mountaines with such needefull spring, | |
| Fuell of life to mountaine cattaile yieldes. |
1596. Drayton, Legends, iii. 147. My blandishments were Fuell to that fire.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 206. They foment, and adde fuell to their inimicitious qualities.
1681. Temple, Mem., III. Wks. 1731, I. 339. Lord Shaftsbury had been busie in preparing Fewel for next Session.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 150, ¶ 6. Where each Party is always laying up Fuel for Dissention.
1818. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. viii. 273. This elevation added fuel to the ambition of Hyder; and from this period his exertions in its gratification became conspicuous and incessant.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. viii. 299. Enjoyments which could supply fuel to private cupidity.
1855. Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, III. iii. § 13. Difficulty adds fuel to the flame.
2. (With a and pl.) A kind of fuel. † Also pl. in collective sense, articles serving as fuel.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 775. Turfe, and Peat, and Cow-Sheards, are cheape Feuls, and last long.
a. 1694. M. Robinson, Autobiog. (1856), 60. That none should be troublesome to their neighbours by cutting their wood or breaking their fuels.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. xi. II. (1869), I. 176. Coals are a less agreeable fuel than wood.
1858. Lardner, Hand-bk. Nat. Phil., 386. This fuel, like coal, consists principally of carbon and hydrogen in various proportions.
1894. Daily News, 25 May, 2/6. Mr. G. Stockfleth read a paper on ‘Liquid Fuels.’
3. attrib. and Comb., as fuel-forest, -house, -wood.
1895. Daily News, 16 May, 6/5. A French *fuel forest.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 473. *Fuel-house.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 126. One half of her deck is dedicated to *fuel logs.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., 330. Hay, Straw, *Fewel wood.
1823. in Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), I. 361. There is a good deal of fuel-wood.
c. Special comb.: † fuel-bear (see quot. and BIER); fuel-economizer, a contrivance for saving fuel in an engine or furnace; fuel-feeder (see quot.); fuel-gas, gas intended for use as fuel.
1612. Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 117. The *Fewell-beare is a generall part of a Furnace which beareth and holdeth the fewell and fire.
1880. Engineering, 2 April, 262. An arrangement of *fuel economiser.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 921/2. *Fuel-feeder. A device for feeding fuel in graduated quantities to a furnace, either for metallurgical purposes or for steam-boilers.
1886. Jrnl. Franklin Inst., CXXI. 311. Some form of *fuel-gas will be manufactured to take its place.
