Alembic
WordNet
noun
(1) An obsolete kind of container used for distillation; two retorts connected by a tube
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From , from mediæval , from , from .
Noun
- An early chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to purify substances by distillation
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- 1973: We of all magical precipitates out of Europe’s groaning, clouded alembic, we are the thinnest, the most dangerous, the handiest to secular uses — Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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