Graphite, esp. as used in pencils; (also) †a graphite pencil (obsolete).

A local name for plumbago or black lead; also called black wad. Also dialect a black-lead pencil (see Eng. Dial. Dict.).

A name formerly given (originally in Cumberland) to black-lead, plumbago, or graphite.

Mineralogy. Graphite, (originally) as a mineral (formerly thought to consist of carbon and iron: see etymological note), (in later use) as the…

One of the crystalline allotropic forms of carbon (see carbon, n. 1), called also black lead, n. and plumbago, n.

The mineral plumbago; graphite.

A form of impure graphite, which separates from certain kinds of iron in the process of smelting, floating on the top in the form of scales. Also, a…

Short for black lead, n., graphite, or plumbago. Only with reference to its use as a material for pencils. Hence, a small stick of graphite for…

Graphite, esp. as used for coating the hulls of racing yachts to reduce friction with the water. Cf. black lead, n. Now rare.

A pseudomorphic form of graphite occurring as small cubic crystals in iron meteorites.

(See quot. 1972.)