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Petrol   /pˈɛtroʊl/   Listen
Petrol

noun
1.
A volatile flammable mixture of hydrocarbons (hexane and heptane and octane etc.) derived from petroleum; used mainly as a fuel in internal-combustion engines.  Synonyms: gas, gasolene, gasoline.



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"Petrol" Quotes from Famous Books



... without even troubling to turn off the tap. In France one has to go dirty so often that the dream of being always clean seems as unrealisable as romance. Our drinking-water is frequently brought up to us at the risk of men's lives, carried through the mud in petrol-cans strapped on to packhorses. To use it carelessly would be like ...
— The Glory of the Trenches • Coningsby Dawson

... mightily pleased. A few more questions put and answered found me with that job right enough ... and a right good job, too, as things are nowadays. I was to have four pounds a week and liveries. Such a mug as "Benny" Colmacher would not be the man to ask about tyres and petrol, and if he did, I knew how to fill up his tanks for him. Be sure I went away on my top speed and ate a better lunch than had come my way for six months or more. Who the man was, or what he was, I didn't care ...
— The Man Who Drove the Car • Max Pemberton

... declared that she is "fighting for the independence of the small nations," including, of course, Belgium. In further evidence of her humanity she has taken to spraying our soldiers in the West with flaming petrol and squirting boiling pitch over our Russian allies. It is positively a desecration of the word devil to apply it to the Germans whether on land, on or under ...
— Mr. Punch's History of the Great War • Punch

... been removed from their sight, but is it out of mind? Are they not waiting and praying for the war to end so that there may be petrol to buy and men returned from the front to cast off their bloodstained clothes and wash and bleach their blackened faces, to put themselves in a pretty livery and drive the ladies and their Pekinese ...
— A Traveller in Little Things • W. H. Hudson

... those who can afford half-a-crown, that invaluable contrivance, "Tommy's Cooker"; and occasionally we get a ration of coke. When times are bad, we live on bully, biscuit, cheese, and water, strongly impregnated with chloride of lime. The water is conveyed to us in petrol-tins—the old familiar friends, Shell and Pratt—hundreds of them. Motorists at home must be feeling the shortage. In normal times we can reckon on plenty of hot, strong tea; possibly some bread; probably an allowance of bacon and jam. And sometimes, when the ration parties ...
— The First Hundred Thousand • Ian Hay

... [U. S.]; solid fueled rocket. [fuels for candles and lamps] wax, paraffin wax, paraffin oil; lamp oil, whale oil. [liquid fuels] oil, petroleum, gasoline, high octane gasoline, nitromethane[ISA:CHEMSUB@fuel], petrol, gas, juice [coll.], gasohol, alcohol, ethanol, methanol, fuel oil, kerosene, jet fuel, heating oil, number 2 oil, number 4 oil, naphtha; rocket fuel, high specific impulse fuel, liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen, lox. [gaseous fuels] natural gas, synthetic ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... were about to start, Don Luis found that the car had run out of petrol and sent Mazeroux in a trap to the outskirts of Alencon to fetch some. He employed the delay in going to look at the Old Castle outside ...
— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... on the eleven-thirty, Sara," said the girl nervously, "unless you will send the motor in for him. The body of his car is being changed and it's in the shop. He must have been jesting when he said he would pay for the petrol—I ...
— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon

... to a Djinn's carpet, a military motor, was at my disposal every morning; but war conditions imposed restrictions, and the wish to use the minimum of petrol often stood in the way of the second visit which alone makes it possible to carry away a ...
— In Morocco • Edith Wharton

... wax candles did so as an affair of personal preference, and denied no claim of higher brilliance to electric illumination. Driving slowly through Hyde Park on sunny days when she was able to go out, her high-swung barouche hinted at no lofty disdain of petrol and motor power. At the close of her youth's century, she looked forward with thrilled curiosity to the dawning wonders of ...
— The Head of the House of Coombe • Frances Hodgson Burnett

... ear, the tune fell out, drop by drop, from the unseen sky on to the dusky town. It was like dim, bygone centuries sounding. It was all so far off. She stood in the old yard of the inn, smelling of straw and stables and petrol. Above, she could see the first stars. What was it all? This was no actual world, it was the dream-world of one's childhood—a great circumscribed reminiscence. The world had become unreal. She herself was a strange, ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... from a bombing flight over the German positions when somebody put a bullet into our petrol and down we came in flames. There was a gas attack going on at the time. We managed to land in a cloud of it, and—somehow we got back to our own lines, a little the worse for wear and all that sort of thing, you know. ...
— Quill's Window • George Barr McCutcheon

... heard that Mr. Hawker had some intention of flying on a non-stop journey from Sydney to Melbourne—a distance of 500 miles—was most anxious to accompany him, provided the Sopwith biplane would carry two persons in addition to the tank of petrol which would, of course, be indispensable. Mr. Hawker, however, says he would not take a passenger should he undertake the journey. Miss Cole is most anxious for another sea flight, as she is of opinion that the power to see through the water to the bottom of the ...
— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... settin' the 'ouse on fire, Mr. Netlips, I'm afraid," said Mrs. Frost, severely, putting her arms akimbo, and sniffing at the board as though she could smell the spirit it proclaimed—"You don't know nothink about petrol! An' we ain't goin' to have motor-cars often 'ere, ...
— God's Good Man • Marie Corelli

... propellers next claim attention. It is the motor that makes aviation possible. It was owing in a very large measure to the introduction of the petrol motor that progress became rapid. Hitherto many had laid the blame of everything on the motor. They had said,—"give us a light and powerful engine and we will show ...
— Marvels of Modern Science • Paul Severing

... Carlisle. I may have seen him," Sir S. replied. "But say nothing to Mrs. James about this conversation of ours. Some time, perhaps, I may tell you why. If not, it's not worth remembering. And now, I see she's got everything ready, and is waiting for us. So is Vedder. The car's had a good drink of petrol, and we can be off—for a sight of Carlyle's country. Will that bore you?" He looked at me almost anxiously, as if something depended ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... been introduced on this line and had become popular. They should have spread their purchases over a number of lines, and kept them within the local supply-demand frame. And they also got into trouble with the local government for selling unrationed petrol and automobile tires. We had to send in a special-operations group, and they came closer to having to engage in out-time local politics than I care to think of." Tortha Karf quoted a line from a currently popular song about the ...
— Police Operation • H. Beam Piper

... can daunt the swallow and the pigeon. So saying, he rang the alarm-bell, which was only kept for fires and burglaries, and summoned the household. 'A murrain on ye for being so pestilent slow!' he shouted. 'Gadsooth, ye knaves! let loose the petrol, or I ...
— The Slowcoach • E. V. Lucas

... would have altered my determination, so you need never think that, Sandy boy. I know your first impulse will be to put the 'stink-pot' along at forty miles an hour in wild pursuit of me. But you can spare your petrol. Be very sure that even if you overtook me, I ...
— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler

... no time being raced and shaken over the flat sand basin, meeting and passing more teams on the way, and twice a petrol and drink station of one board shed, and a man with a jolly Irish face and a gun openly in his belt, to attend to it. We had no breakdowns, and just at sunset got into the one and only street of Moonbeams. ...
— Elizabeth Visits America • Elinor Glyn

... heard and witnessed from the Apex and it was generally understood that the British were endeavouring to improve their ground or positions by sapping forward. Occasionally a naval searchlight would illuminate the area. At other times flares, made of oakum soaked in petrol and secured to wooden contrivances, would be thrown out into No-Man's Land—there, for a time, to burn merrily. Pistol flares were then only just making their appearance and very ...
— The 28th: A Record of War Service in the Australian Imperial Force, 1915-19, Vol. I • Herbert Brayley Collett

... "It is so difficult to make oneself understood. This spirit is not cognac, it is some kind of petrol!" ...
— The Golden Scorpion • Sax Rohmer

... concerts, all of which results in excellent behavior and the best of relations between the British soldier and the French inhabitants. At the docks armies of laborers and lines of ships discharging men, horses, timber, rations, fodder, coal, coke, petrol, and the same at ...
— The War on All Fronts: England's Effort - Letters to an American Friend • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... back of Shafto's mind he dragged out a memory of FitzGerald's mention of a broken-down petrol boat. Here was probably the very one—by no means a derelict; on the contrary, a fast traveller. For a moment he was startled, then promptly made up his mind. This was a chance, perhaps, to secure ...
— The Road to Mandalay - A Tale of Burma • B. M. Croker

... a petrol launch," Julian explained, "and I shall land you practically in the dining room in another ...
— The Devil's Paw • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... chauffeur less. They'll keep themselves, but I meant them to sleep on the barge. The skipper ought to be a smart chap, who can be trusted with money to pay the expenses of the boat as one goes along—bridge-money and all sorts of things. The chauffeur can buy the essence—petrol, you call it in England, don't you?—but the skipper had ...
— The Chauffeur and the Chaperon • C. N. Williamson

... makes a buzzing sound when the petrol tank is getting low. This is nothing compared with the motor-taxes invented by the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, which ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, May 19, 1920 • Various

... I daren't drive. My left leg is so weak that I couldn't work the clutch. Springfield had to run us over here to-day. There's barely enough petrol to take ...
— "The Pomp of Yesterday" • Joseph Hocking

... cost of living—as the Italians not only held Antivari but even fired on French boats that were taking supplies up the river Bojana, it was necessary to revictual all except the new parts of Montenegro from Kotor. The lack of petrol, from which even the American Red Cross units were suffering, compelled the authorities to fall back on ox-waggons, which at any rate are not expeditious. By the way, it was the staff of another mission, ...
— The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 2 • Henry Baerlein

... the close of May, I found it worn into threadbare patches, with edges unravelled like those of some old carpet in a seaside lodging-house. The lanes that fed it were already thick with dust as in thirsty August, and instead of eglantine, wild-roses, and the rest, a smell of petrol hung upon hedges that were quite lustreless. On the crest of the hill, whence we once thought the view included heaven, I stood by those beaten pines we named The Fort, counting jagged bits of glass ...
— The Garden of Survival • Algernon Blackwood

... acetylene lamps met them abruptly as they emerged, dazzling them for the moment. The buzz of a motor engine also greeted them, and a smell of petrol hung ...
— The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell

... side, carrying her in one hand. He finally flings her into the taxicab and returns to his seat. The luggage is piled upon the roof by dancing porters and tied with many-coloured ribbons. The taxi departs in a cloud of petrol, the driver steering with his toes and manipulating the clutches with his hands. Farewells are waved and finally, surrounded by the rest of the porters, the Station Master and Bill dance a dance of Glad Sacrifice, stab themselves with their ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, April 14, 1920 • Various

... self-moving steam diggers, milking machines and sheep-shearing machines (power and hand). In 1901, at Cardiff, competition was invited in portable oil engines, agricultural locomotive oil engines and small ice-making plant suitable for a dairy. In the years 1903 and 1904 petrol motors adapted for ploughing and other agricultural operations formed a prominent feature of the ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... Fig. 81 is designed for heating with a large paraffin or petrol blow-lamp. It has considerably greater water capacity, heating surface—the furnace being entirely enclosed—and water surface than the boiler just described. The last at high-water level is about 60, and at ...
— Things To Make • Archibald Williams

... bumped by, sitting in a kind of dreadful bath chair fastened in front of a motor bicycle, spattering noise and petrol. You couldn't see her features under her expression, which was agonized. The young man who propelled her was smirking conceitedly, as if to say, "What a kind chap I am, giving my maiden ...
— Set in Silver • Charles Norris Williamson and Alice Muriel Williamson

... secured also the Haidar Pasha Harbour concession, thereby controlling and handling all merchandise arriving at railhead from the interior of Asia Minor.[1] Already on the Bagdad Railway the big tunnels of Taurus and Amanus are available for narrow-gauge petrol-driven motors, and the broad-gauge line will soon be complete. Meanwhile railway construction is pushed on in all directions under German control, and the Turkish Minister of Finance (August 1916) allocated a large sum ...
— Crescent and Iron Cross • E. F. Benson

... itself out. There was still one thing that he could do. His plane, slow though it was, would carry him to the pampas. He could get fresh fuel at numerous bootleg petrol stations, even though the regulations against intersectional flight were rigid. With luck he could reach the pampas, perhaps before the sluggish monsters had fallen upon their prey. It was said that the victims sometimes waited ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, November, 1930 • Various

... plenipotentiaries that the United States would be Persia's creditor for this help and that she would invite American financiers to put her money matters in order, American engineers to develop her mining industries, and the American oil firms to examine and exploit her petrol deposits.[316] In a word, Persia would be Americanized. This naive announcement of the role reserved for American benefactors in the land of the Shah might have impressed certain commercial and financial interests in the United States, but was wholly alien to the only ...
— The Inside Story Of The Peace Conference • Emile Joseph Dillon

... and transport my companions, two by two, over the cliffs and deposit them at the rendezvous. As I flew north, the temptation to explore overcame me. I knew that I could easily cover Caspak and return to the beach with less petrol than I had in my tanks; and there was the hope, too, that I might find Bowen or some of his party. The broad expanse of the inland sea lured me out over its waters, and as I crossed, I saw at either extremity ...
— The People that Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... of the cab were broad unglazed windows, through which one could watch the tangle of machinery. Dynamos are bolted to the floor, purring under their shields like comfortable cats; abaft of them a twenty-horse-power Wolseley petrol-engine supplies motive power for everything. And above the dynamos, cased in studded leather, swinging a little in their ordered precession, are the two gyroscopes, the soul of the machine. To them she ...
— How To Write Special Feature Articles • Willard Grosvenor Bleyer

... meet sooner or later, and when we meet, it will be by accident, not by—" He paused. Outside the cycle-shop stood a small two-seater car that had a familiar look to Hugh. As he glanced at the car its owner came out of the shop with a can of petrol in his hand. ...
— The Imaginary Marriage • Henry St. John Cooper

... it. On one occasion they even beat him in the day's march, but were too kind or too blind to seize their advantage. As usual he was taking his obsession along with him, though, if he had but known, he might have got it to do the work by the simple formality of turning the petrol tap from OFF to ON. His was ever a curious life, from the first moment of his joining the Army in tails, a bowler hat, and a large sword wrapped in a homely newspaper. But the inward fun of it all is not for the present, Charles; our clear ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. CL, April 26, 1916 • Various

... was dirty and unfriendly, staring at us with hostile eyes. Add Dublin grease, which beats the Belgian, and a crusty garage proprietor who only after persuasion supplied us with petrol, and you may be sure we were glad to see the last of it. The road to Carlow was bad and bumpy. But the sunset was fine, and we liked the little low Irish cottages in the twilight. When it was quite dark we stopped at a town with a hill in it. One of our ...
— Adventures of a Despatch Rider • W. H. L. Watson

... by the sight of a man I had known in other scenes, despatch-riding round a fleet in a petrol-launch. There are many of his type, yachtsmen of sorts accustomed to take chances, who do not hold masters' certificates and cannot be given sea-going commands. Like my friend, they do general utility work—often in their own boats. This is a waste of ...
— Sea Warfare • Rudyard Kipling

... stole it sometime Saturday night," said Frank. "Yes, they wouldn't have had to make more than eighty miles an hour steady flying to do it. But where did they get the petrol?" ...
— The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border • Gerald Breckenridge

... overcome were enormous. On one occasion he congratulated himself because one of his steam-cylinders was only three-eighths of an inch out of truth in the bore. Nowadays a good firm would reject a cylinder 1/500 of an inch out of truth; and in small petrol-engines 1/5000 of an inch is sometimes the greatest "limit of ...
— How it Works • Archibald Williams

... the workshop. From left to right: Hodgeman, Hunter, Lasebon, Correll, and Hannam. The petrol engine part of the ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson



Words linked to "Petrol" :   hydrocarbon, gasohol, leaded gasoline, fuel, napalm, unleaded gasoline



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