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tar and pitch

(Encyclopedia) tar and pitch, viscous, dark-brown to black substances obtained by the destructive distillation of coal, wood, petroleum, peat, and certain other organic materials. The heating or…

Brewer's: Tarred

All tarred with the same brush. All alike to blame, all sheep of the same flock. The allusion is to the custom of distinguishing the sheep of any given flock by a common mark with a brush…

Harris, Joel Chandler

(Encyclopedia) Harris, Joel Chandler, 1848–1908, American short-story writer and humorist, b. Eatonton, Ga., considered one of the great American regionalist writers. As an apprentice to the editor…

tar

(Encyclopedia) tar: see tar and pitch.

creosote

(Encyclopedia) creosotecreosotekrēˈəsōt [key], volatile, heavy, oily liquid obtained by the distillation of coal tar or wood tar. Creosote derived from beechwood tar has been used medicinally as an…

coal tar

(Encyclopedia) coal tar, product of the destructive distillation of bituminous coal. Coal tar can be distilled into many fractions to yield a number of useful organic products, including benzene,…

Brewer's: Jack Tar

A common sailor, whose hands and clothes are tarred by the ship tackling. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894Jack and the Bean StalkJack Sprat A B C D E F…

Brewer's: Tarring and Feathering

The first record of this punishment is in 1189 (1 Rich. I.). A statute was made that any robber voyaging with the crusaders “shall be first shaved, then boiling pitch shall be poured upon…

baby boom

(Encyclopedia) baby boom, a period in which the birthrate is significantly higher than in other periods, especially the post–World War II period in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New…

naphtha

(Encyclopedia) naphthanaphthanăpˈthə, năfˈ– [key], term usually restricted to a class of colorless, volatile, flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixtures. Obtained as one of the more volatile fractions in…