elixir

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A sweetened aromatic solution of alcohol and water, serving as a vehicle for medicine.
2. n. See philosophers' stone.
3. n. A substance believed to maintain life indefinitely. Also called elixir of life.
4. n. A substance or medicine believed to have the power to cure all ills.
5. n. An underlying principle.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In alchemy, a soluble solid substance which was believed to have the property of transmuting baser metals into silver or gold and of prolonging life. The great elixir, also called the philosopher's stone, or the red tincture, when shaken in very small quantity into melted silver, lead, or other base metal, was said to transmute it into gold. In minute doses it was supposed to prolong life and restore youth, and was then called the elixir vitæ. The lesser elixir, stone of the second class, or white tincture, was regarded as having these qualities in lesser degree; thus it transmuted baser metals into silver. The word is now often used figuratively.
2. n. In medicine, formerly, a tincture with more than one base; in modern pharmacy, an aromatic, sweetened, spirituous preparation containing small quantities of active medicinal substances. The first object sought in the modern elixir is an agreeable taste, and usually this is attained only by such sacrifices as to render the effect of the medicine almost nil. U.S. Dispensatory, p. 537.
3. n. The inmost principle; absolute embodiment or exemplification.
4. To give the character of an elixir to.

Wiktionary

1. n. alchemy A liquid which converts lead to gold.
2. n. A liquid which is believed to cure all ills and gives eternal life.
3. n. pharmacy A sweet flavored liquid (usually containing a small amount of alcohol) used in compounding medicines to be taken by mouth in order to mask an unpleasant taste.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Med.) A tincture with more than one base; a compound tincture or medicine, composed of various substances, held in solution by alcohol in some form.
2. n. (Alchemy) An imaginary liquor capable of transmuting metals into gold; also, one for producing life indefinitely.
3. n. The refined spirit; the quintessence.
4. n. Any cordial or substance which invigorates.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. hypothetical substance that the alchemists believed to be capable of changing base metals into gold
2. n. a sweet flavored liquid (usually containing a small amount of alcohol) used in compounding medicines to be taken by mouth in order to mask an unpleasant taste
3. n. a substance believed to cure all ills