Dictionary

quenchcoal en · NOUN

Etymology

From quench + coal.

Meanings

1. (countable, idiomatic, obsolete, uncountable) A person or thing that undermines religious zeal; hence a heartless, uncaring person with respect to religion.
   • In 1636 he published two books at once, or immediately after each other. One of them was called The Quench Coal, in answer to that called A Coal from the Altar; against placing the Communion-Table Altarwise. 1817, “William Prynne”, in Athenae Oxonienses, volume 3, page 847:
   • Zeal has in this our earthly mold little fuel and much quench-coal; it is hardly fired and soon cooled. 1615, Samuel Ward, A Coal from the Altar to Kindle the Holy Fire of Zeal:
   • You are quenchcoal; no sparkle of grace can kindle upon your cold hearth. 1642, Daniel Rogers, Naaman the Syrian: His Disease and Cure, page 868:

Forms