distill

/dəˈstɪl/

/dɪˈstɪl/

Other forms: distilled; distilling; distills

When you distill something, you are boiling it down to its essence — its most important part. Whether it's alcohol or ideas, the distilled part is the most powerful.

The original meaning of distill comes from the process of making alcohol, known as distilling, in which all the impurities of a substance are vaporized and its pure, high-alcohol condensation collected. Distill eventually came to mean any process in which the essence of something is revealed. If you take notes at a lecture and then turn them into an essay for your professor, you're distilling your notes into something more pure and exact. At least, that's what you hope you're doing.

Definitions of distill

1. verb

   undergo condensation; change from a gaseous to a liquid state and fall in drops
   “The acid distills at a specific temperature”

   synonyms: condense, distil

   condense

   develop due to condensation

   condense

   remove water from

   type of:

   flux, liquefy, liquify

   become liquid or fluid when heated
2. verb

   remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation
   synonyms: make pure, purify, sublimate

   distil

   undergo the process of distillation

   types:

   rectify, refine

   reduce to a fine, unmixed, or pure state; separate from extraneous matter or cleanse from impurities

   purge

   rid of impurities

   type of:

   ameliorate, amend, better, improve, meliorate

   make better
3. verb

   undergo the process of distillation
   synonyms: distil

   distil, extract

   extract by the process of distillation

   make pure, purify, sublimate

   remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation

   type of:

   change

   undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
4. verb

   extract by the process of distillation
   “distill the essence of this compound”

   synonyms: distil, extract

   distil

   undergo the process of distillation

   types:

   moonshine

   distill (alcohol) illegally; produce moonshine

   type of:

   create, make

   make or cause to be or to become
5. verb

   give off (a liquid)
   synonyms: distil

   type of:

   exudate, exude, ooze, ooze out, transude

   release (a liquid) in drops or small quantities