Meanings
comparative more fuelish · superlative most fuelish
- Consuming excessive amounts of fuel, especially fossil fuels.
People who were "fuelish" would learn to conserve, or simply do without.
1979, Environmental Design Research Association, EDRA. - Volume 10, Part 1979, page 4334 more examples
Driving fuel-efficient vehicles and using motorbikes when possible to replace or supplement vehicles are two of the ways Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks employees are attempting to become less fuelish and to lower transportation costs.
1980, Montana Outdoors - Volume 11, page 8For the moment, there is no energy crisis, no gasoline rationing, no collection of conservation tips from oil companies, no twinge of un-Americanism from driving a car big enough to fit into comfortably, and no such thing as being "fuelish."
1987, William Geist, The Zucchini Plague and Other Tales of Suburbia, page 91The fifty-five-mile-per-hour speed limit, the unreliable cars that had been reconfigured to meet fuel efficiency standards, the constant reminders not to be “fuelish” served as reminders that one of America's oldest freedoms—the freedom to waste—had been severely curtailed.
2009, Thomas Hine, The Great Funk: Falling Apart and Coming TogetherA heavy foot, aggressive driving in traffic, and other fuelish driving habits significantly reduce fuel economy and cost you dearly at the pump.
2010, Dan Chiras, Green Transportation Basics: A Green Energy Guide, page 40 - Pertaining to fuel, especially in a manner that is considered silly.
"Spring is only three tons away," says the Harrisburg Patriot. "A fuelish way of measuring," comments a correspondent.
1921, Ax-I-Dent-Ax - Volumes 6-7, page 152 more examples
Special arrangements will be made, we understand, to obviate the dire necessity of the costermonger having to consume his (s) moke! Smoke, it is admitted, is "sootable" for many purposes; but the wisest plan is virtually the most “fuelish", viz. to burn it as additional fuel.
1881, Fun - Volume 34, page 249What fuelish fancies! The crooks have wrung such abundant profits from the coupons that "no prison sentence could be long enough," as one courtroom bystander put it.
1981, The Current Digest of the Soviet Press - Volume 33, page 18
Origin
Blend of fuel + -ish + foolish
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
fuelish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fuelish
“fuelish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fuelish. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fuelish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fuelish.
Source: fuelish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.