DISTILLATION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Distillation

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/dˌɪstəlˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Distillation n.

1.

The act of falling in drops, or the act of pouring out in drops.

2.

That which falls in drops. (R.)

3.

(Chem.) The separation of the volatile parts of a substance from the more fixed; specifically, the operation of driving off gas or vapor from volatile liquids or solids, by heat in a retort or still, and the condensation of the products as far as possible by a cool receiver, alembic, or condenser; rectification; vaporization; condensation; as, the distillation of illuminating gas and coal, of alcohol from sour mash, or of boric acid in steam. Note: The evaporation of water, its condensation into clouds, and its precipitation as rain, dew, frost, snow, or hail, is an illustration of natural distillation.

4.

The substance extracted by distilling.

Destructive distillation (Chem.), the distillation, especially of complex solid substances, so that the ultimate constituents are separated or evolved in new compounds, usually requiring a high degree of heat; as, the destructive distillation of soft coal or of wood.

Dry distillation, the distillation of substances by themselves, or without the addition of water or of other volatile solvent; as, the dry distillation of citric acid.

Fractional distillation. (Chem.) See under Fractional.

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Etymology of 'Distillation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Distillation" Quotes from Famous Books

... expression perturbed and excited, she put down her knitting. I saw her busied for a moment at a little stand; she poured out water, and measured drops from a phial: glass in hand, she approached me. What dark-tinged draught might she now be offering? what Genii-elixir or Magi-distillation? ...

— Villette • Charlotte Bronte

... per lb. The estate alluded to above yields from 30,000 to 40,000 lb. per annum; a uniform rate of 41/2 d. per lb. of finished bark is paid for the labor. Cinnamon oil is produced from this bark by distillation; the mode is very primitive and wasteful. About 40 lb. of bark, previously macerated in water, form one charge for the still, which is heated over a fire made of the spent bark of a previous distillation. Each charge of bark yields about ...

— Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880 • Various

... and the building of a mescal drinking-house. Belding had worked hard for the post office, but he did not like the idea of a saloon for Forlorn River. Still, that was an inevitable evil. The Mexicans would have mescal. Belding had kept the little border hamlet free of an establishment for distillation of the fiery cactus drink. A good many Americans drifted into Forlorn River—miners, cowboys, prospectors, outlaws, and others of nondescript character; and these men, of course, made the saloon, ...

— Desert Gold • Zane Grey

... was the first person who procured an elastic fluid from the actual distillation of coal. His experiments with this object are related in the first volume of his Vegetable Statics, published in 1726. From the distillation of "one hundred and fifty-eight grains of Newcastle coal, he states that he obtained ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 290 - Volume X. No. 290. Saturday, December 29, 1827. • Various

... for a moment that I walked in the Italy of Boccaccio, hand-in-hand with the plague, through a city which had lost half its population by pestilence and the other half by flight. I turned back into my inn profoundly satisfied. This at last was the old-world dulness of a prime distillation; this at last was antiquity, ...

— Italian Hours • Henry James

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