culm
See also: Culm
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kʌlm/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌlm
Etymology 1
Perhaps related to coal. Perhaps from Welsh cwlm (“knot or tie”), applied to this species of coal, which is much found in balls or knots in some parts of Wales: compare Old English culme.
Noun
culm (countable and uncountable, plural culms)
- waste coal, used as a poor quality fuel; slack.
- 1887, Homer Greene, chapter XXI, in Burnham Breaker:
- Here he lay down on a place soft with culm, to take his contemplated rest, and, before he was aware of it, sleep had descended on him, overpowered him, and bound him fast.
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- anthracite, especially when found in small masses
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Latin culmus. Doublet of calame, calamus, and haulm; further related to caramel, chalumeau and shawm.
Noun
culm (plural culms)
- (botany) the stem of a plant, especially of grass or sedge
- 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire, page 150:
- […] because, upon hearing him out, she sank down on the lawn in an impossible posture, examining a grass culm and frowning, he had taken his words back at once; […]
Translations
stem of a grass or sedge
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Anagrams
- Clum, MCLU, clum