Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Charcoal \Char"coal`\, n. [See {Char}, v. t., to burn or to
   reduce to coal, and {Coal}.]
   1. Impure carbon prepared from vegetable or animal
      substances; esp., coal made by charring wood in a kiln,
      retort, etc., from which air is excluded. It is used for
      fuel and in various mechanical, artistic, and chemical
      processes.

   2. (Fine Arts) Finely prepared charcoal in small sticks, used
      as a drawing implement.

   {Animal charcoal}, a fine charcoal prepared by calcining
      bones in a closed vessel; -- used as a filtering agent in
      sugar refining, and as an absorbent and disinfectant.

   {Charcoal blacks}, the black pigment, consisting of burnt
      ivory, bone, cock, peach stones, and other substances.

   {Charcoal drawing} (Fine Arts), a drawing made with charcoal.
      See {Charcoal}, 2. Until within a few years this material
      has been used almost exclusively for preliminary outline,
      etc., but at present many finished drawings are made with
      it.

   {Charcoal point}, a carbon pencil prepared for use in an
      electric light apparatus.

   {Mineral charcoal}, a term applied to silky fibrous layers of
      charcoal, interlaminated in beds of ordinary bituminous
      coal; -- known to miners as mother of coal.