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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An apparatus consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, formerly used for distilling liquids.
  2. n. A device that purifies or alters by a process comparable to distillation.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A vessel formerly used in chemistry for distillation, and usually made of glass or copper. The bottom part, containing the liquor to be distilled, was called the matrass or cucurbit; the upper part, which received and condensed the volatile products, was called the head or capital, the beak of which was fitted to the neck of a receiver. The head alone was more properly the alembic. It is now superseded by the retort and worm-still.
  2. n. Hence Anything which works a change or transformation: as, the alembic of sorrow.
  3. To distil as by an alembic; obtain as by means of an alembic.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An early chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to purify substances by distillation

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An apparatus formerly used in distillation, usually made of glass or metal. It has mostly given place to the retort and worm still.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an obsolete kind of container used for distillation; two retorts connected by a tube

Etymologies

  1. From French alambic, from mediæval Latin alembicus, from Arabic إنْبِيق (’inbīq, "still"), from Ancient Greek ἄμβιξ (ambix, "cup, cap of a still"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-'anbīq : al-, the + 'anbīq, still (from Greek ambix, cup). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. retort

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. peacekeeper
  2. balls-up
  3. watermark
  4. signal-fire
  1. sinking fund
  2. training-ground
  3. immigrant
  4. gimcracks
  1. water bath
  2. pipkin
  3. Old English
  4. mitrailleuse
  1. green-roofed
  2. dinner-bell
  3. dormer-window
  4. honey-sweet
  1. fantastic-looking
  2. half-bantering
  3. workbasket
  4. baseballs
  1. richly-carved

reverse dictionary (10)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. cucurbit
  2. alembic
  1. limbec
  2. stillatory
  1. alembical
  2. distillation
  1. receiver
  2. rostrum
  1. aludel
  2. pelican

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. container
  1. still

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Lists

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Comments

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  • chained_bear "Small-planter households resented their dependence on large-planter households. Although the Chesapeake continued to lag behind Europe, the arrival during the second half of the eighteenth century of the three-gallon alembic still, a series of improved cider presses, the newly developed Hewes crab apple, and other technologies allowed small-planter households to become more self-sufficient. They developed alcohol trade networks with kin and people of their own kind."
    —Sarah Hand Meacham, Every Home a Distillery: Alcohol, Gender, and Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), 4

    Also,
    "The invention of the alembic still, or side distilling, in particular, made the process easier. Side distilling became known in England around 1720, but it was not practiced in the Chesapeake until the 1760s. Before the invention of side distilling, stills were very large and expensive pieces of equipment, and distilling was a complex process...." (103) Jun 6, 2010

  • bilby "The sound of her anger was condensed, like acid, perhaps due to the alembic of the pump case around them. It functioned like an acoustic concave mirror, increased and concentrated the tone. She had a melodious voice. Enhanced in the Zahle School girls' chorus. Conducted by Hess-Theissen. But at the same time it could be a whiplash. He had seen her quick-freeze an entire super-elliptical conference table of chief engineers."
    - 'The Quiet Girl', Peter Høeg. Mar 19, 2008

  • jaime_d I first saw this in an RW Emerson metaphor. "Thus is Art a nature passed through the alembic of man." Dec 26, 2006

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‘alembic’ has been looked up 3551 times, loved by 7 people, added to 70 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.