Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To subject (a substance) to distillation.
- v. To separate (a distillate) by distillation.
- v. To increase the concentration of, separate, or purify by or as if by distillation.
- v. To separate or extract the essential elements of: distill the crucial points of the book.
- v. To exude or give off (matter) in drops or small quantities.
- v. To undergo or be produced by distillation.
- v. To fall or exude in drops or small quantities.
Wiktionary
- v. To subject a substance to distillation.
- v. To undergo or be produced by distillation.
- v. To make by means of distillation, especially whisky.
- v. To exude in small drops.
- v. To impart in small quantities.
- v. To extract the essence of; concentrate; purify.
- v. To trickle down or fall in small drops; ooze out.
- v. To be manifested gently or gradually.
- v. To drip or be wet with.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To drop; to fall in drops; to trickle.
- v. To flow gently, or in a small stream.
- v. To practice the art of distillation.
- v. To let fall or send down in drops.
- v. To obtain by distillation; to subject to a process of evaporation and subsequent condensation; to extract by distillation, as spirits, essential oil, etc.; to rectify
- v. To subject to distillation
- v. To dissolve or melt.
- v. to extract out and present the essence of; to shorten and refine; to present the essential elements of; -- of ideas or texts.
WordNet 3.0
- v. undergo condensation; change from a gaseous to a liquid state and fall in drops
- v. extract by the process of distillation
- v. remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation
- v. give off (a liquid)
- v. undergo the process of distillation
Etymologies
- Middle English distillen, from Old French distiller, from Latin distillāre, variant of dēstillāre, to trickle : dē-, de- + stillāre, to drip (from stilla, drop).
Examples
“The word distill comes from the Latin destillare, “to drip.””
Simon & Schuster: On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
“For a perverse death cult with powerful members in every stratum of society has learned how to distill from the bones of their sacrificed victims the ultimate thrill — a nectar that, once tasted, is impossible to resist.”
“I believe that oil wins (b) by a large margin, but hydrogen may win (a) and (c), depending on the source of the energy required to "distill" it.”
McCain: We Can Achieve "Strategic Independence" From Foreign Oil By 2025
“To take a single case, why should he not have spelt _until_ with two _l_s, instead of one, -- as he does "distill,”
“But I was trying with this book, and it is a big book and it goes off on all these - and tells a lot of different stories, but I was trying to kind of distill a series of patterns that you see again and again in the stories of innovation, and particularly in the environments that lead to breakthrough ideas.”
“In the book of Job, there is a remarkable description of how evaporation works: “He draws up the drops of water water vapor NLT, they distill rain from the mist; which the clouds pour down” 36:27–28 NASB.”
“And if you feel you must distill the history from the fiction, then you are welcome to do research of your own.”
“The process of picking up the pieces is still underway, and on Monday in Washington the International Monetary Fund kicks off a two-day conference of top economists to try to distill some lessons.”
The Washington Post: IMF weighs financial crisis at D.C. conference
“You'll read books that capture and distill the human condition, that pry your eyes open to the lives and realities beyond our own.”
The Huffington Post: Brock Cohen: A Promise to the Students of an Uncool Teacher
“What the film does is distill the good concept of a single cop trapped in a building taking on a group of highly skilled and dangerous thieves, and removes all of the wearisome self-doubt from the main character, while still making him a hero that bleeds and wants to spend Christmas with his wife.”
Top 10 Movies as Good or Better Than Books They’re Based On » Scene-Stealers
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘distill’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
-
mi verba
oscillate, dichotomy, boorish, gloomy, magnanimous, bacchanal, distill
Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.