Definition of "soot" [soot]

• The fine black particles, chiefly composed of carbon, produced by incomplete combustion of coal, oil, wood, or other fuels. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "While rain will remove rocket exhaust soot from the lower atmosphere, carbon particles will remain in the stratosphere, according to a paper to be published in the scientific journal Geophysics Research Letters."
• "A third man on the tracks, covered in soot and dirt and with all but his boxer shorts blown off by the blast, had been staring into space, he said."
• "They were just covered in soot, their hair was all over the place, you just basically saw the whites of their eyes."