Chimney Meaning
/ˈt͡ʃɪmni/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA vertical tube or hollow column used to emit environmentally polluting gaseous and solid matter (including but not limited to by-products of burning carbon- or hydrocarbon-based fuels); a flue.
nounThe glass flue surrounding the flame of an oil lamp.
Sentence Examples
A chimney carries smoke from a fireplace to the outside.
The chimney began to give out smoke.
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CEFR Practice Quiz
Smoke rose from the brick ____ as the family lit a cozy fire inside.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English chymeneye, chymneye, chymene, from Old French cheminee, from Late Latin camīnāta, from Latin camīnus, from Ancient Greek κάμῑνος (kámīnos, “furnace”). Doublet of chimenea.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Our chimney was a square hole in the roof: it was but a little part of the smoke that found its way out, and the rest eddied about the house, and kept us coughing and piping the eye."
— 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
"The external aspect of the oficina was not unlike that of a north-country coal or iron mine—tall chimneys and machinery, corrugated iron buildings, offices and houses, the shanties of workmen, a high bank of refuse."
— 1890, William Howard Russell, “Iquique to the Pampas”, in A Visit to Chile and the Nitrate Fields of Tarapacá, Etc., London: J[ames] S[prent] Virtue & Co., […], page 171:
"Witches always anointed themselves with ointments before departing up the chimney to their Sabbaths."
— 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 112:
"By next winter he was spending every evening poring over the work of Théodore Agrippa d'Aubigné on the French Reformation by the light of a little oil lamp, with a tiny cistern the size of an orange and no chimney[.]"
— 1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 22:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
Smoke rose from the brick ____ as the family lit a cozy fire inside.