Word.ws English Dictionary

burn coal

burn coal verb: of a nonblack person, usually a woman, to seek sexual relationships with black people, usually men.

Verb

burn coal (third-person singular simple present burns coal, present participle burning coal, simple past and past participle burned coal or burnt coal)

  1. (derogatory, offensive, slang) Of a nonblack person, usually a woman, to seek sexual relationships with black people, usually men.
    • "Not for you, nigger," she spat at him. "When I left you I was through burning coal."1946, Esquire, volume 25, page 158
  2. (literally) To burn coal, usually for heat.

Forms of burn coal

third-person singular presentburns coal
present participleburning coal
past participleburned coal
pastburned coal
past participleburnt coal
pastburnt coal
alternative formburn the coal

Origin of burn coal

First use appears c. 1946. See cite below.

Words formed from burn coal

Questions about burn coal

What does burn coal mean?
Burn coal means of a nonblack person, usually a woman, to seek sexual relationships with black people, usually men.
What part of speech is burn coal?
Burn coal is a verb.
What is the past tense of burn coal?
The past tense of burn coal is burned coal.

Words near burn coal in the dictionary

  1. Burn Bridge
  2. burn building
  3. burn buildings
  4. burn center
  5. burn centers
  6. burn coal
  7. burn daylight
  8. burn down
  9. burn in
  10. burn in hell
  11. Burn Naze

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: burn coal (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “burn coal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/burn_coal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.