fracking

noun frack·ing \ ˈfra-kiŋ \

|Updated on: 20 Jun 2018

Definition of fracking

: the injection of fluid into shale beds at high pressure in order to free up petroleum resources (such as oil or natural gas)

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frack

play \ˈfrak\ verb

fracking was our Word of the Day on 06/26/2014. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of fracking from the Web

Using drilling advances such as fracking, operators in Texas and North Dakota have pushed U.S. production higher.

— Washington Post, "Trump declares oil prices too high, blames OPEC," 14 June 2018
But a shortage of truckers to transport crude, as well as the sand and water used in fracking, is threatening to slow a drilling boom that has helped lift U.S. oil production this year to all-time highs.

— jennifer smith, WSJ, "Hot Commodity in the Shale Boom: Truckers," 8 June 2018
FourWinds bought and sold sand used in hydraulic fracking for oil production.

— patrick danner, San Antonio Express-News, "FourWinds’ bankruptcy trustee wins judgment against investor," 6 Apr. 2018
Methane emissions are self-reported by the industry and only include unconventional well sites — those produced by horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

— frank kummer, Philly.com, "Methane emissions from oil and gas sites 5 times higher than reported, says group," 15 Feb. 2018
California, the third-largest oil producing state in the nation, on Wednesday sued the Trump administration to reinstate an Obama-era rule governing hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking.

— angela hart, sacbee, "New lawsuit in California vs. Trump seeks to tighten rules on fracking," 24 Jan. 2018
The trick was to combine horizontal drilling, enabling each well to fan out across a wide area, with industrial-scale hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to crack up the innards of tight rock.

— jeffrey ball, Fortune, "Photographing The Permian Basin," 25 May 2018
The former Cleveland mayor wanted to ban fracking as a method for oil and gas drilling and eschewed corporate donations in fundraising.

— jessie balmert, Cincinnati.com, "Rematch in Ohio governor's race as Mike DeWine, Richard Cordray emerge in primary," 8 May 2018
Ten Suits California has already sued the EPA 10 times in the 15 months since Trump’s inauguration, over disputes ranging from hazardous air pollutants to oil exploration and fracking.

— Bloomberg.com, "Governor Moonbeam's Got One Last Fight Against Trump Left in Him," 1 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fracking.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Hydraulic fracturing is a technique in which a liquid is injected under high pressure into a well in order to create tiny fissures in the rock deep beneath the earth which then allow gas and oil to flow into the well. The term "hydraulic fracturing" is first known to have appeared in print in a 1948 issue of Oil & Gas Journal. A 1953 issue of the same journal also contains the earliest known print use of "fracking." The word fracking (sometimes spelled fraccing or fracing, particularly by those in the gas and oil industries) was created by shortening "fracturing." The addition of the "k" brings the word into conformity with the inflected forms of similar English words ending in a vowel plus "c," such as shellacking, panicking, and frolicking.