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distil

Pronunciation: /dɪˈstɪl/

(US distill)
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Definition of distil

verb (distils, distilling, distilled)

[with object]
  • 1purify (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 (as adjective distilled)distilled water
  • make (spirits or an essence) by distilling:whisky is distilled from a mash of grains (as noun distilling)the distilling industry
  • extract the essence of (something) by heating it with a solvent:distil the leaves of some agrimony
  • remove (a volatile constituent) of a mixture by heating:coal tar is made by distilling out the volatile products in coal
  • [no object] literary emanate as a vapour or in minute drops:she drew back from the dank breath that distilled out of the earth
  • 2extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of:my travel notes were distilled into a book (as adjective distilled)the report is a distilled version of the main accounts

Derivatives

distillatory

adjective

Origin:

late Middle English: from Latin distillare, variant of destillare, from de- 'down, away' + stillare (from stilla 'a drop')

Spelling rule

Double the l when adding endings which begin with a vowel to words which end in a vowel plus l (as in travel): (distils, distilling, distilled).

distil in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of distil in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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