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   distil

   /dɪˈstɪl/

   verb

   • 1. purify (a liquid) by heating it so that it vaporizes, then cooling and condensing the vapour and collecting the resulting liquid: "they managed to distil a small quantity of water" Similar purifyrefinefiltertreatprocessvaporize/evaporate and condensesublimesublimaterare:fractionate
   • ▪ make (spirits or an essence) by distilling: "whisky is distilled from a mash of grains" Similar brewfermentmake
   • ▪ extract the essence of (something) by heating it with a solvent: "distil the leaves of some agrimony" Similar extractpress outsqueeze outexpressdraw outtake out
   • ▪ remove (a volatile constituent) of a mixture by heating: "coal tar is made by distilling out the volatile products in coal" Similar boil downreduceconcentratethickencompresscondensepurifyrefineseparaterectify
   • ▪ emanate as a vapour or in minute drops: literary "she drew back from the dank breath that distilled out of the earth" Similar emanateexudedripleaktrickledribbleflow
   • 2. extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of: "my travel notes were distilled into a book"

   Word Origin late Middle English: from Latin distillare, variant of destillare, from de- ‘down, away’ + stillare (from stilla ‘a drop’).

   Derivatives

   • 1. distillatory adjective

   Scrabble Points: 7

   • D

     2

   • I

     1

   • S

     1

   • T

     1

   • I

     1

   • L

     1

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