frack1
/frak
/verb [with object]
1Inject liquid into (a subterranean rock formation, borehole, etc.) at high pressure so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas: millions of gallons of water are needed to successfully frack a single well a gas company wants to frack his land and the land around it...
- A less-publicized part of the new regulation is what some experts are most interested in: the mandatory disclosure of the amount of water needed to frack each well.
- Most fracked wells use 1 million to 5 million gallons of water over three to five days.
- Microseismic technology involves lowering detectors into a listening well near a fracked well.
1.1Extract (oil or gas) by injecting liquid into a subterranean rock formation, borehole, etc. at high pressure: the industry has begun to frack natural gas from shale deposits (as adjective fracked) the pipeline currently brings fracked gas to New York from Texas...
- Oil companies are gearing up to frack oil deposits in the Monterey Shale, a geological formation that lies beneath some of the state's most productive farmland.
- The group blocked the railroad crossing in Fairfield to protest the transport of fracked oil.
- Oil will be fracked and renewables will not be used, just as all the relatively unprofitable technologies that don't involve long chains of production from controlled sources will not be used.
Derivatives
fracker
- The co-op sells water to frackers at roughly 84 cents a barrel, compared to 21 cents a barrel for homes.
- Methane can occur naturally in the area (that's what draws frackers there).
- Frackers prefer fresh water because it is less corrosive.
Origin
1950s: representing an abbreviated form of fracture.
frack2
/frak/(also frak)
exclamation US informal
Used to express annoyance, frustration, impatience, or surprise: what the frack is going on!...
- Thanks everyone. Dropping the speed limit in the CBD to 30 kmh What the frack!
- What the frack is going on with Sterne's blogroll?
- How the fleeping frack did we get here?
Origin
1970s: euphemistic alteration of fuck, popularized by the US television show Battlestar Galactica.