PEAT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does peat mean? 

• PEAT (noun)
  The noun PEAT has 1 sense:

1. partially carbonized vegetable matter saturated with water; can be used as a fuel when dried

  Familiarity information: PEAT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEAT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Partially carbonized vegetable matter saturated with water; can be used as a fuel when dried

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("peat" is a kind of...):

humate (material that is high in humic acids)

vegetable matter (matter produced by plants or growing in the manner of a plant)

Derivation:

peaty (of or pertaining to or of the nature of peat)

 Context examples 

Vast amounts of carbon are stored in undecayed organic matter — dead plants and animals — in Arctic permafrost and peat.

(Alaska Shows No Signs of Rising Arctic Methane, NASA)

Through its data collection, the study expanded the circumpolar peat carbon pool estimate for permafrost regions by more than 50 percent.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

Scientists discovered the fossils in ancient peat deposits at the Tevshiin Govi mine in the steppes of central Mongolia.

(Paleontologists find fossil relative of Ginkgo biloba, NSF)

Wait a bit! There is a fellow cutting peat up yonder. Bring him over here, and he will guide the police.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Deep in the waterlogged peat of salt marshes, carbon is stored at much greater rates than in land ecosystems, serving as an offset to climate change caused by carbon dioxide (CO2) build-up in the atmosphere.

(Salt marshes' capacity to store carbon may be threatened by nitrogen pollution, National Science Foundation)

The new permafrost formation then stores a large amount of carbon processed in and under thermokarst lakes, as well as the peat that formed after lake drainage.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)