crucible
Other forms: crucibles
A crucible is a melting pot used for extremely hot chemical reactions — the crucible needs to be melt-proof.
Literally, a crucible is a vessel used for very hot processes, like fusing metals. Another meaning of the word is a very significant and difficult trial or test. Scaling Mt. Everest with your legs tied together would be a crucible, as would swimming the English Channel blindfolded. Whether or not to have children is a crucible for many people. The title of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is an example of this meaning.
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a vessel made of material that does not melt easily; used for high temperature chemical reactionssynonyms: melting pottype of:vesselan object used as a container (especially for liquids)
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Vocabulary lists containing crucible
In this unflinching memoir, Elie Wiesel describes his experience as a young man imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust. 2006 Hill and Wang edition.
The minerals and metals that make our technology possible come from underground, and they undergo multiple transformations on the surface. Do you have the mettle to learn this hole list of mining and metallurgy vocabulary?
The year is 1773, and fourteen-year-old Johnny is an apprentice silversmith in Boston. When a terrible accident threatens his future, Johnny must quickly adapt — just as the American colonists join forces to break free from British rule.