Word.ws English Dictionary

petroleur

petroleur noun: one who lights fires with petrol, especially (historical) a revolutionary who attacked public buildings in this way in Paris in 1871.

Noun

petroleur (plural petroleurs)

  1. One who lights fires with petrol, especially (historical) a revolutionary who attacked public buildings in this way in Paris in 1871.
    • Caution was necessary in moving about, the pavement had to be avoided, as the impression conveyed to the mind of the sentry, if he saw anyone near a house, was that it must be a petroleur or a petroleuse.1872, John Furley, Struggles and Experiences of a Neutral Volunteer
    • In times like these one is tempted to turn into a petroleur.1877, quoted in 1990, Walter Boehlich, The Letters of Sigmund Freud to Eduard Silberstein, 1871-1881#

Forms of petroleur

pluralpetroleurs

Origin of petroleur

From French pétroleur.

Questions about petroleur

What does petroleur mean?
Petroleur means one who lights fires with petrol, especially (historical) a revolutionary who attacked public buildings in this way in Paris in 1871.
What part of speech is petroleur?
Petroleur is a noun.
What is the plural of petroleur?
The plural of petroleur is petroleurs.

Words near petroleur in the dictionary

  1. petroleum spirit
  2. petroleum spirits
  3. petroleum tanker
  4. petroleum tankers
  5. petroleums
  6. petroleur
  7. petroleurs
  8. petrolhead
  9. petrolheads
  10. petroliana
  11. petrolic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: petroleur (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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