distil

Etymology

PIE word *de to be distilled (sense 1.3) is placed in the retort on the left and heated. The substance vaporizes and travels down the long neck of the retort into the flask on the right, where it condenses back into a liquid as the flask is being cooled with water from a tap.]] From Late Middle English distillen (“to fall, flow, or shed in drops, drop, trickle; to shed drops; to fill (the eyes) with tears; (alchemy, medicine) to subject (something) to distillation; to obtain (something) using distillation; to distil; to condense or vaporize; (figuratively) to give (good fortune) to; to say (slanderous words)”) [and other forms], from Old French distiller (modern French distiller (“to distil”)), and from its etymon Latin distīllāre, a variant of Latin dēstīllāre, the present active infinitive of dēstīllō (“to drip or trickle down; to distil”), from dē- (prefix meaning ‘down, down from, down to’) + stīllō (“to drip, drop, trickle; to distil”) (from stīlla (“drop of liquid; (figuratively) small quantity”), probably a diminutive of stīria (“ice drop; icicle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”)). cognates * French distiller (“to distil”) * Italian distillare (“to distil”) * Occitan distillar * Portuguese destilar (“to distil; to drip”) * Spanish destilar (“to distil; to exude; to filter”)

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To exude (a liquid) in small drops; also, to give off (a vapour) which condenses in small drops.
      Firs distil resin.
      Animals are a little like ourselves: they excel in an art only on condition of specializing in it. The Epeira, who, being omnivorous, is obliged to generalize, abandons scientific methods and makes up for this by distilling a poison capable of producing torpor and even death, no matter what the point attacked. 1912, J[ean-]Henri Fabre, “The Garden Spiders: Pairing and Hunting”, in Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, transl., The Life of the Spider, New York, N.Y.: Blue Ribbon Books, →OCLC, page 315
   2. (by extension, figurative) To impart (information, etc.) in small quantities; to infuse.
   3. To heat (a substance, usually a liquid) so that a vapour is produced, and then to cool the vapour so that it condenses back into a liquid, either to purify the original substance or to obtain one of its components; to subject to distillation.
      By putting the hydrate into a bent tube, afterwards hermetically sealed, I found it easy, after decomposing it by a heat of 100°, to distil the yellow fluid to one end of the tube, and so separate it from the remaining portion. 30 November 1823, Michael Faraday, “LXXXVI. On Fluid Chlorine.[…]”, in Alexander Tilloch, Richard Taylor, editors, The Philosophical Magazine and Journal: Comprehending the Various Branches of Science, the Liberal and Fine Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, volume LXII, number 307, London: […] Richard Taylor,[…]; and sold by Cadell; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; […], →OCLC, page 414
      [I]n fact, it [kelp] is used in a variety of medicines; we boil, burn, and distil it to produce salts, corrodents, sublimates, and other medicinal substances. 21 August 1869, John Lyon, “The Self-made Chemist. A True Story, from the Scrap-book of an Old Reporter.”, in The Utah Magazine: The Home Journal of the People.[…], volume III, number 16, Salt Lake City, Ut.: W[illiam] S[amuel] Godbe and E[lias] L[acy] T[homas] Harrison, →OCLC, page 251, column 2
   4. Followed by off or out: to expel (a volatile substance) from something by distillation.
   5. (also figurative)
      1. To extract the essence of (something) by, or as if by, distillation; to concentrate, to purify.
      2. To transform a thing (into something else) by distillation.
      3. (also figurative) To make (something, especially spirits such as gin and whisky) by distillation.
   6. (obsolete) To dissolve or melt (something).
2. (intransitive)
   1. To fall or trickle down in small drops; to exude, to ooze out; also, to come out as a vapour which condenses in small drops.
   2. To flow or pass gently or slowly; hence (figurative) to be manifested gently or gradually.
      Thy bountiful care / What tongue can recite? / It breathes in the air, / It shines in the light: / It streams from the hills, / It descends to the plain, / And sweetly distils / In the dew and the rain. a. 1837 (date written), Robert Grant, “Psalm CIV [O Worship the King]”, in Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg], editor, Sacred Poems.[…], new edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1868, →OCLC, stanza 4, page 34
   3. To drip or be wet with some liquid.
   4. To turn into a vapour and then condense back into a liquid; to undergo or be produced by distillation.
      Carbonic acid is a limpid colourless body, extremely fluid, and floating upon the other contents of the tube. It distills readily and rapidly at the difference of temperature between 32° and 0°. 30 November 1823, Michael Faraday, “LXXXVI. On Fluid Chlorine.[…]”, in Alexander Tilloch, Richard Taylor, editors, The Philosophical Magazine and Journal: Comprehending the Various Branches of Science, the Liberal and Fine Arts, Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce, volume LXII, number 307, London: […] Richard Taylor,[…]; and sold by Cadell; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; […], →OCLC, page 419