an oven for the conversion of coal into coke by heating the coal in the absence of air so as to distill the volatile ingredients
Word origin
[1830–40]This word is first recorded in the period 1830–40. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: ante, isomerism, paraffin, showcase, stroboscope
Examples of 'coke oven' in a sentence
coke oven
Up to 400 workers keep their jobs for now as the coke ovens and power plant, linked to the steelworks, continue to run.
The Sun (2015)
Desperate to salvage something, the workers hoped the coke ovens could be mothballed, maybe to re-open when the price of steel picks up again.