[f. TRAIN sb.3 + OIL.] Oil obtained by boiling from the blubber of whales, esp. of the right whale; formerly also applied to that obtained from seals, and from various fishes.
c. 1553. Chancelour, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1886), III. 40. They haue much oyle which wee call treine oyle.
1591. G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (Hakl. Soc.), 11. An other … principall commoditie is their trane oyle, drawen out of the seal fish.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 229. Of the fat [of the tunny] is made Traine-oile for Clothiers.
1712. A. van Leeuwenhoek, in Phil. Trans., XXVII. 446. The Fat of a Whale,… out of which we boil the Train-Oyl.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 151. Soft Soap is made of train oil and a little tallow.
1865. Parkman, Champlain, ii. (1875), 210. Seeking … the more modest gains of codfish and train-oil.
attrib. 1842. Browning, Pied Piper, vii. A drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks.
1865. G. Macdonald, A. Forbes, 18. Candles or train-oil lamps were burning in most … houses.
