Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A porous cup, often made of bone ash, used in assaying to separate precious metals from base elements such as lead.
- n. The bottom or receptacle in a silver-refining furnace.
- v. To assay or separate from base metals in a cupel.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In metallurgy, a small vessel made of pulverized bone-earth, in the form of frustum of a cone, with a cavity in the larger end, in which lead containing gold and silver is cupeled. See cupellation. In assaying with the cupel the lead is absorbed by the porous boneash into which it sinks.
- To perform the process of cupellation upon.
- n. The hearth of a cupellation furnace in which silver is separated from lead; a test. See test, 2.
Wiktionary
- n. A small circular receptacle used in assaying gold or silver with lead.
- v. To refine by means of a cupel.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A shallow porous cup, used in refining precious metals, commonly made of bone ashes (phosphate of lime).
- v. To refine by means of a cupel.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small porous bowl made of bone ash used in assaying to separate precious metals from e.g. lead
Etymologies
- From French coupelle, mediaeval Latin cupella, diminutive of cupa ‘cask’. (Wiktionary)
- French coupelle, from Old French, diminutive of coupe, cup, from Late Latin cuppa, drinking vessel. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake of silver and the two are melted at a great heat in a small vessel called a cupel, made by compressing bone ashes into a cup-shape in a steel mold.”
“June 28, 2008 at 3:53 am oh and I needz u to go ahead nd cum in on sunday 2. c we haz had a cupel uf layofs nd we sorta needz to pleh catchup”
Yeaaah…I’m gonna need you - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“You need to do it in a cupel of circumstances, when you are working on something or talking to someone.”
“I sawd a led baloon fly on myfbusterz a cupel uv weeks ago.”
i gotz u a rly good book… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“January 12, 2008 at 1:28 pm salesman kitteh sez to cupel:”
THIRD WHEEL CAT - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“FIRE ASSAY* smelting with gold collector, separation, cupellation muffle or retort furnace, crucible, cupel taste (assay) lead, borax, soda, potash chemical”
“-- Ordinary lead is calcined in a cupel made of cinders or powdered bones; the lead is changed to a cinder which disappears into the cupel, and a button of silver remains.”
“That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom.”
INTERNET WIRETAP: The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce (1993 Edition)
“This is evaporated in a clay cupel called a _ghariya_ by which the mercury is got rid of and the gold left behind.”
The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV Kumhar-Yemkala
“His words had a passion in them not usual in the calm, pure flow most natural to his uttered thoughts; white-hot iron we are familiar with, but white-hot silver is what we do not often look upon, and his inspiring address glowed like silver fresh from the cupel.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cupel’.
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Containers
Stuff that holds other stuff.
cardboard box, jar, filing cabinet, safe deposit box, cupboard, wardrobe, jewel case, briefcase, locker, canopic jar, chest of drawers, paper sack and 208 more...
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phrontistery - c
from phrontistery.info
caballine, cabas, cable, caboched, cabochon, caboose, cabotage, cabré, cabrie, cabriole, cabriolet, cacaesthesia and 1298 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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wiredweird's Words
cubane, diyne, logit, cnidoblast, fid, witling, probit, nullipara, menstruum, scrotal, carbonium, amitotic and 107 more...
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"A-C" words
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Wordie/Wordnik Curio Cabinet
Oddments culled from my "main" lists that belong in a display cabinet of their own, plus sundry other curiosities. :-)
zeugma, ziggurat, xiphoid, xeric, whizgigging, whangdoodle, viviparous, vivific, vinolent, verjuice, vellicate, velleity and 1193 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cupel.
yarb Silver assays will be adjusted for slag and cupel losses.
- contract for refining of lead and silver ore. Jan 22, 2009