Definition of alembic in English:
alembic
noun əˈlɛmbɪkəˈlɛmbɪk
A distilling apparatus, now obsolete, consisting of a gourd-shaped container and a cap with a long beak for conveying the products to a receiver.
- The peculiar inspiration of psychoanalysis was to invent a relationship which acted like a filter bed or alembic to isolate these ‘unreal’ elements in the patient's typical affective strategies.
- The medium-weight, alembic distilled vodka immediately washes the palate with a lavish array of raspberry flavors that rivals the real thing.
- The ‘limbeck’ is an alembic, a piece of distilling apparatus known also to alchemists.
- Its insignia was two alembics with spouts crossed against a benzene ring.
- The condensation visible when an object is heated in an alembic was sometimes called the queen's tears.
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-'anbīq, from al- 'the' + 'anbīq 'still' (from Greek ambix, ambik- 'cup, cap of a still').
Definition of alembic in US English:
alembic
nounəˈlembikəˈlɛmbɪk
A distilling apparatus, now obsolete, consisting of a rounded, necked flask and a cap with a long beak for condensing and conveying the products to a receiver.
- Its insignia was two alembics with spouts crossed against a benzene ring.
- The peculiar inspiration of psychoanalysis was to invent a relationship which acted like a filter bed or alembic to isolate these ‘unreal’ elements in the patient's typical affective strategies.
- The condensation visible when an object is heated in an alembic was sometimes called the queen's tears.
- The medium-weight, alembic distilled vodka immediately washes the palate with a lavish array of raspberry flavors that rivals the real thing.
- The ‘limbeck’ is an alembic, a piece of distilling apparatus known also to alchemists.
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-'anbīq, from al- ‘the’ + 'anbīq ‘still’ (from Greek ambix, ambik- ‘cup, cap of a still’).