All 3 Uses of
distill
in
The Scarlet Letter
- On the other side of the house, old Roger Chillingworth arranged his study and laboratory: not such as a modern man of science would reckon even tolerably complete, but provided with a distilling apparatus and the means of compounding drugs and chemicals, which the practised alchemist knew well how to turn to purpose.
p. 116.9 *distilling = for purifying or concentrating a liquid by boiling it and condensing its vapors
- It might be the exhilaration of that potent cordial which is distilled only in the furnace-glow of earnest and long-continued thought.
p. 222.8distilled = made (figuratively, like a liquor made by boiling and condensing vapors)
- Dames of elevated rank, likewise, whose doors she entered in the way of her occupation, were accustomed to distil drops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemy of quiet malice, by which women can concoct a subtle poison from ordinary trifles; and sometimes, also, by a coarser expression, that fell upon the sufferer's defenceless breast like a rough blow upon an ulcerated wound.†
p. 79.3unconventional spelling: Distil is the British spelling. Americans spell it distill.
Definitions:
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(1)
(distill as in: distill the whisky) to make a more pure or concentrated liquid by boiling it and condensing its vapors (as is done when making whisky or some petroleum products)
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(2)
(distill as in: distill the central idea) extract (separate essential ideas)