Definition of distillation in English:

noun

• 1The action of purifying a liquid by a process of heating and cooling.

  ‘the petroleum distillation process’

  More example sentences

  • ‘DHA contains highly concentrated omega-3 fatty acids from ultra purified, concentrated by molecular distillation.’
  • ‘However, in broad terms, petroleum can be divided into six fractions obtained from fractional distillation of the crude oil.’
  • ‘There are several ways of obtaining the oil, the most common being steam distillation.’
  • ‘Unlike electric distillation, boiling is not required for solar distillation.’
  • ‘Oxygen is produced commercially by the fractional distillation of liquid air.’
  • ‘Remarkable for the time, the production process in the new distillery was state of the art in terms of continuous distillation.’
  • ‘Treatment of bottled water by distillation or reverse osmosis ensures oocyst removal.’
  • ‘Distillation of the wine is carried out in proper copper pot stills, the sort used for cognac.’
  • ‘One of the most important applications of vapor pressure is the purification of liquids by distillation.’
  • ‘For those who want to produce their own pure drinking water, passive-solar distillation is an inexpensive, low-tech option.’
  • ‘One can utilize lavender fresh, dried or by the oil, which is commercially extracted by steam distillation.’
  • ‘Essential oils are usually extracted by steam distillation.’
  • ‘We also purify the glycerol by vacuum distillation.’
  • ‘The apparatus used in a laboratory is known as a distillation train.’
  • ‘A number of desalination methods are available, but the most popular are distillation and reverse osmosis.’
  • ‘For essential oil extraction, the seed is ground immediately before distillation to increase oil yield and minimize distillation time.’
  • ‘Although distillation may be an effective water treatment, the water heating will add to your energy use.’
  • ‘This event encourages great distillation of essential oils.’
  • ‘Distillation is an ancient technique known to many cultures.’
  • ‘Briefly stated, a hydrosol is the water that remains after producing an essential oil via steam or water distillation.’

  Synonyms

  distilling, purification, refining, filtering, filtration, treatment, processing

  pressing, squeezing

  View synonyms

• 2The extraction of the essential meaning or most important aspects of something.

  ‘this book represents the distillation of years of experience in the private sector’

  count noun ‘the film is a distillation of personal experiences’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Some months ago, I thought the Hot Wheels Shark Playset was an especially effective distillation of the id of young boys.’
  • ‘Noam Chomsky does not cajole the listener; he presents his arguments - a distillation of copious reading - with disarming candor.’
  • ‘Distinct from the European surrealist writers, who were concerned with distillation of dreams, Neruda harnessed the natural world.’
  • ‘Moreover, the book reads like a magical distillation of 19 th-century novels.’
  • ‘Furthermore, the plan is more or less a distillation of a number of ideas down to a muddy nothing.’
  • ‘In a sense art represents the distillation of what is best in a particular culture.’
  • ‘Her poetry is a superb distillation of the black idiom, capturing tones from the exquisitely humorous to the hauntingly poignant.’
  • ‘Identification involves the distillation of social values into a set of personal values.’
  • ‘A verse play was to be the distillation of this journey.’
  • ‘It is a compact distillation of a substantial amount of research.’
  • ‘In its simplest distillation, the strategy driving this American-led war is straightforward.’
  • ‘The yield obtained through distillation reaches 2 % or at least it takes 50 kg of raw material to produce a liter of oil.’
  • ‘Historically, B movies have existed as simplistic, inexpensive distillations of Hollywood's big-budget genre fare.’
  • ‘In an information age, where time is of the essence, perhaps Poetry, the very distillation of life itself, has come into its own.’
  • ‘It is an arduous journey of spiritual sublimation and distillation to even get to the point where the Oath is even an option.’
  • ‘This talk is a distillation of those visits.’
  • ‘And Parisians are the distillation of everything French.’
  • ‘This was an outgrowth or distillation of the same kind of thing that has been going on since the Enlightenment.’
  • ‘This process of distillation allows us to impose order upon chaos and to justify the indefensible.’
  • ‘How does one engage in this process of distillation or characterisation that you say must be undertaken?’