Distill
/dɪˈstɪl/
verbB2
Definition
Distill means to take out the purest or most important parts of a liquid or idea by a special process. For liquids, it involves heating to create steam and then cooling the steam back to liquid form to remove impurities (things that are not pure). For ideas or information, it means to make something simpler and clearer by keeping only the main points.
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See It in Action
To purify a liquid by heating and cooling to collect its pure form
- •They distill water to remove harmful chemicals.
- •Whiskey is made by distilling fermented grains.
- •The laboratory distills alcohol to get a high purity.
To make an idea or information simpler and clearer by keeping only the main points
- •The report distills complex data into easy-to-understand graphs.
- •She distilled her speech into three main ideas.
- •The teacher helped the students distill the story’s meaning.
Make It Stick
- ✓Think of "distill" like "make clear," but more focused on taking out only the best or purest parts.
- ✓Picture boiling water turning into steam, then the steam turning back into very clean water.
- ✓It feels like when you explain a long story in just a few clear sentences, keeping only the important parts.
- ✓Sounds like "dis-TILL" → imagine filling a small bottle (a "till") with only the best drops from a big pot.
- ✓Remember how people make clean drinking water or alcohol by heating and cooling liquids to remove bad parts.
- ✓NOT like "boil" (which just heats liquid), "distill" also collects and cleans the steam into pure liquid.
- ✓NOT like "summarize" (which only shortens text), "distill" means carefully choosing the purest or clearest parts.
- ✓NOT like "filter" (which removes dirt by passing through a screen), "distill" uses heat and steam to separate parts.
Try Other Words
- •Purify: make something clean or pure (Use when talking about cleaning liquids)
- •Extract: take out something important or useful (Use when focusing on taking out parts from a whole)
- •Summarize: give a short version of information (Use when making information shorter, but less about purity)
- •Refine: improve by removing bad parts (Use when improving something by making it better or purer)
Unboxing
- •Word parts: "dis-" (a prefix meaning apart or away) + "till" (from Latin "stillare," meaning to drip or fall)
- •Etymology: From Latin "distillare," meaning to drip down or fall in drops
- •Historical development: Used since the 1400s to describe the process of making pure liquids by heating and collecting steam
- •Modern usage: Used both for physical processes like making pure water or alcohol and for figurative meaning like making ideas clear and simple
Reflect & Connect
•How can the idea of distilling be useful when you learn or explain something complicated?
•Can you think of a time when you had to distill your thoughts or feelings to explain them clearly?
Fill in the blanks
1.To distill water, you need to ___ it until it turns into steam and then cool the ___ back into liquid.
2.When writing a summary, you ___ the main ideas and leave out the less important details.
3.Distill means to take the ___ or purest parts from a mixture or information.
4.Unlike just boiling, distill involves ___ the steam to get a clean liquid.
5.When you distill a speech, you ___ it into clear and simple points that everyone can understand.
6.Scientists distill liquids to ___ harmful substances and keep only the clean parts.
7.The teacher asked the students to distill the story’s meaning, so they focused on the ___ ideas only.