[f. L. carbōn-em charcoal, coal + -ACEOUS.]
1. Of the nature of coal, charcoal, or other common form of carbon; coaly.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, I. 8. It destroys the carbonaceous or coaly matter.
1863. Possibil. of Creation, 53. Manchester would soon be enveloped in a great carbonaceous fog.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 101. Crucibles, bellows, chimneys, and carbonaceous fuel were certainly employed by the ancients.
2. Chem. Of or pertaining to the chemical element carbon; consisting of or containing carbon.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 243. The acid is decomposed, the carbonaceous principle combines, and is fixed in the vegetable, while the oxigene is thrown off.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. xii. 497. Carbonaceous inflammable gas.
1807. Allen & Pepys, in Phil. Trans., LX. 268. To consume certain known quantities of diamond and other carbonaceous substances in oxygene gas.
1879. Christian World, 19 Dec., 814/2. Food … is made up of two constituents, the nitrogenous or flesh-forming part, and the carbonaceous or heat-producing part.
3. Geol. Of the nature of coal, abounding in coal, coaly.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 222. In one part of the series, carbonaceous shales occur.
1872. W. S. Symonds, Rec. Rocks, vi. 208. Carbonaceous markings of plants.
1878. A. H. Green, Coal, i. 27. The beds … more or less coaly or carbonaceous in character.
