quenchcoal
See also: quench-coal
English
Alternative forms
- quench-coal
Etymology
quench + coal
Noun
quenchcoal (countable and uncountable, plural quenchcoals)
- (obsolete, idiomatic, Puritanism) A person or thing that undermines religious zeal; hence a heartless, uncaring person with respect to religion.
- 1615, Ward, Samuel, A Coal from the Altar to Kindle the Holy Fire of Zeal:
- Zeal has in this our earthly mold little fuel and much quench-coal; it is hardly fired and soon cooled.
- 1642, Rogers, Daniel, Naaman the Syrian: His Disease and Cure, page 868:
- You are quenchcoal; no sparkle of grace can kindle upon your cold hearth.
- 1817, “William Prynne”, in Athenae Oxonienses, volume 3, page 847:
- In 1636 he published two books at once, or immediately after each other. One of them was called The Quench Coal, in answer to that called A Coal from the Altar; against placing the Communion-Table Altarwise.
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