2 meanings, 3 uses
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1 —2 uses as in:
distill the whisky
Definition
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)
- 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.Chapter 9 — The Leech (82% in)
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.Chapter 22 — The Procession (26% in)
distilled = made (figuratively, like a liquor made by boiling and condensing vapors)
There are no more uses of "distill" flagged with this meaning in The Scarlet Letter.
Typical Usage
(best examples)
2 —1 use as in:
distill the central idea
Definition
extract (separate essential ideas)
- 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.Chapter 5 — Hester at her Needle (68% in)
distil = concentrate
There are no more uses of "distill" flagged with this meaning in The Scarlet Letter.
Typical Usage
(best examples)