From Late Middle Englishdistillen(“to fall, flow, or shed in drops, drop, trickle; to shed drops; to fill (the eyes) with tears; (alchemy, medicine) to subject (something) to distillation; to obtain (something) using distillation; to distil; to condense or vaporize; (figuratively) to give (good fortune) to; to say (slanderous words)”)[and other forms],[1] from Old Frenchdistiller (modern Frenchdistiller(“to distil”)), and from its etymonLatindistīllāre, a variant of Latindēstīllāre, the presentactiveinfinitive of dēstīllō(“to drip or trickle down; to distil”), from dē-(prefix meaning ‘down, down from, down to’) + stīllō(“to drip, drop, trickle; to distil”) (from stīlla(“drop of liquid; (figuratively) small quantity”), probably a diminutive of stīria(“ice drop; icicle”), from Proto-Indo-European*ster-(“stiff”)).[2]
[I]t [Silene] eaſeth the head-ach, if togither with oile of roſes it be diſtilled upon the head by way of embrochation.
1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost.[…], London:[…][Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter[…]; [a]nd Matthias Walker,[…], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…], 1873, →OCLC, lines 54–57:
[B]eſide it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] ſtood One ſhap'd & wing'd like one of thoſe from Heav'n By us oft ſeen; his dewie locks diſtill'd Ambroſia;[…]
1692, John Ray, “Upon a Review of the Precedent Discourse, Some Things Thought Fit to be Added and Amended”, in Miscellaneous Discourses Concerning the Dissolution and Changes of the World.[…], London:[…] Samuel Smith,[…], →OCLC, pages 250–251:
[page 250][…] Trees do deſtil VVater a pace when Clouds or Miſts hang about them;[…][page 251] Beſides that in hot Regions Trees may in the nigh time deſtil VVater, though the Air be clear, and there be no Miſt about them, […]
Animals are a little like ourselves: they excel in an art only on condition of specializing in it. The Epeira, who, being omnivorous, is obliged to generalize, abandons scientific methods and makes up for this by distilling a poison capable of producing torpor and even death, no matter what the point attacked.
1630, Robert Sanderson, “[Ad Populum.]The First Sermon. At the Assises at Lincoln in the Year 1630. at the Request of Sir Daniel Deligne Knight, then High-Sheriff of that County.”, in XXXIV Sermons.[…], 5th edition, London:[…][A. Clark] for A. Seil, and are to be sold by G. Sawbridge,[…], published 1671, →OCLC, paragraph 5, page 253:
But of all other men our Solomon could leaſt be ignorant of this truth. Not only for that reaſon, becauſe God had filled his heart with a large meaſure of wiſdom beyond other men: but even for this reaſon alſo: that being born of wiſe and godly Parents, and born to a Kingdom too, […] he had this truth (conſidering the great uſefulneſs of it to him in the whole time of his future Government) early diſtilled into him by both his Parents, and was ſeaſoned thereinto from his childhood in his education.
By putting the hydrate into a bent tube, afterwards hermetically sealed, I found it easy, after decomposing it by a heat of 100°, to distil the yellow fluid to one end of the tube, and so separate it from the remaining portion.
[I]n fact, it [kelp] is used in a variety of medicines; we boil, burn, and distil it to produce salts, corrodents, sublimates, and other medicinal substances.
Followed byofforout: to expel (a volatile substance) from something by distillation.
But flowers diſtil'd though they with winter meete, Leeſe but their ſhow, their ſubſtance ſtill liues ſweet.
[1633], George Herbert, “Praise”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:[…] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green,[…], →OCLC, page 53:
An herb deſtill'd, and drunk, may dwell next doore, On the ſame floore, To a brave ſoul: Exalt the poore, They can do more.
1750 September 21 (Gregorian calendar), Samuel Johnson, “No. [51]. Monday, September 10. 1750.”, in The Rambler, volume II, Edinburgh:[[…] Sands, Murray, and Cochran]; sold by W. Gordon, C. Wright, J. Yair,[…], published 1750, →OCLC, page 195:
[T]he ladies […] begged me to excuſe ſome large ſieves of leaves and flowers that covered two thirds of the floor; for they intended to diſtil them when they were dry, and they had no other room that ſo conveniently received the riſing ſun.
Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy that robbed her napoleon of all its flavor.
To transform a thing (into something else) by distillation.
a.1638 (date written), Benjamin Jonson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “The Sad Shepherd: Or, A Tale of Robin-Hood”, in The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. The Second Volume.[…] (Second Folio), London:[…]Richard Meighen, published 1640, →OCLC, Act I, scene vi, page 138:
Ile grow to your embraces, till two ſoules Diſtilled into kiſſes, through our lips Doe make one ſpirit of love.
It is ſuppoſ'd He that meetes Hector, yſſues from our choice, And choice (being mutuall act of all our ſoules) Makes merit her election, and doth boyle, (As twere from forth vs all) a man diſtill'd Out of our vertues, […]
VVhat potions haue I drunke of Syren teares Diſtil'd from Lymbecks foule as hell within, Applying feares to hops, and hopes to feares, Still looſing when I ſaw my ſelfe to win?
1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Discourse of the Life and Habit of the Persians at This Present”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia,[…], London:[…]William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 150:
They haue Arack or Vſquebagh, diſtilled from Dates or Rice, both which are Epidemick in their mirth and Feſtiuals.
1830, Alfred Tennyson, “To J. M. K.”, in The Complete Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, Chicago, Ill.: The Dominion Company, published 1897, →OCLC, page 32:
Thou art no Sabbath drawler of old saws, Distill'd from some worm-canker'd homily; But spurr'd at heart with fieriest energy To embattail and to wall about thy cause With iron-worded proof, […]
To fall or trickle down in small drops; to exude, to ooze out; also, to come out as a vapour which condenses in small drops.
1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “Of the Place of Paradise”, in The Historie of the World[…], London:[…]William Stansby for Walter Burre,[…], →OCLC, 1st book, §.XV (A Conclusion by Way of Repetition of Some Things Spoken of before):
The Euphrates[…]diſtilleth out of the mountains of Armenia.
1697, Virgil, “The Third Pastoral. Or, Palæmon”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…], London:[…]Jacob Tonson,[…], →OCLC, page 15, lines 138–139:
Let Myrrh inſtead of Thorn his Fences fill: And Show'rs of Hony from his Oaks diſtil.
In vain kind ſeaſons ſwell'd the teeming grain, Soft ſhow'rs distill'd, and Suns grew warm in vain; The ſwain with tears to beaſts his labour yields, And famiſh'd dies amidſt his ripen'd fields.
Nothing can be imagined more tender than was the parting between theſe two Lovers. A thouſand Sighs heaved the Boſom of Joſeph; a thouſand Tears diſtilled from the lovely Eyes of Fanny, […]
1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page iv:
The leaves of the foreſt were loaded with manna, pure amber dropped from every bough, honey diſtilled from the rifted rock, and the humming bee, drunk with joy, ſtrayed from flower to flower, forgetful of his burſting cells.
And al Iſrael haue tranſgreſſed thy law, and haue declined from hearing thy voice, and the malediction hath diſtilled vpon vs, & the deteſtation, which is written in the booke of Moyſes the ſeruant of God, becauſe we haue ſinned to him.
[L]et the Subject treated on be whatever it will, their Imaginations are ſo entirely poſſeſs'd and replete with the Defects of other Pens, that the very Quinteſſence of what is bad, does of neceſſity diſtil into their own: by which means the whole appears to be nothing elſe but an Abſtract of the Criticiſms themſelves have made.
Thy bountiful care What tongue can recite? It breathes in the air, It shines in the light: It streams from the hills, It descends to the plain, And sweetly distils In the dew and the rain.
So when two Boars, in wild Ytene bred, Or on VVeſtphalia’s fatt’ning Cheſt-nuts fed, […] In the black Flood they wallow o’er and o’er, ’Till their arm’d Jaws diſtill with Foam and Gore.
[B]efore ſome Mountain Lion's Ire The village Curs, and trembling Swains retire; VVhen o'er the ſlaughter'd Bull they hear him roar, And ſee his Jaws diſtil with ſmoaking Gore;[…]
[A] magnificent beau in silk stockings and pumps, bounding, skipping, swinging, capering, and throwing himself into ten thousand attitudes, till his face glows with fever, and distils with perspiration:[…]
To turn into a vapour and then condense back into a liquid; to undergo or be produced by distillation.
Carbonic acid is a limpid colourless body, extremely fluid, and floating upon the other contents of the tube. It distills readily and rapidly at the difference of temperature between 32° and 0°.
to impart (information, etc.) in small quantities — see also infuse
to heat (a substance, usually a liquid) so that a vapour is produced, and then to cool the vapour so that it condenses back into a liquid; to subject to distillation