▪ I. † inˈspissate, ppl. a. Obs.
[ad. late L. inspissāt-us pa. pple. (Vegetius, c 420), f. inspissāre to thicken: see next.]
Inspissated, thickened.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1006 The aire of rivers being always grosse and heavy, in Winter is more inspissate by reason of the circumstant cold. 1657 Physical Dict., Inspissate juyce, is the juyce of some herb boyled to the thickness of honey. c 1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Dispens. i. i. (1734) 15 Much safer for Horses..than Scammony and other Gums, and inspissate Juices. |
▪ II. inspissate, v.
(ɪnˈspɪseɪt, ˈɪnspɪseɪt)
[f. late L. inspissāre (Boeth.), f. in- (in-2) + spissāre to thicken, spissus thick.]
1. trans. To thicken, condense.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §726 The Sugar doth inspissate the Spirits of the Wine, and maketh them not so easie to resolue into Vapour. 1657 S. Purchas Pol. Flying-Ins. 141 Manna is first a liquid dew, and after inspissated by a vertue of the tree, or plant on which it falls. 1744 Berkeley Siris §16 Pitch is tar inspissated. 1845 Lindley Sch. Bot. x. (1858) 170 Whatever tends to inspissate sap..has the property of causing..flower-buds to be produced. |
| fig. 1732 Historia Litteraria III. 249 When the Subject is limpid of it self, he frequently inspissates it, by throwing in a heap of Circumstances not Essential to it. 1884 E. E. Hale Xmas in Narrag. v. 117 No method..by which you can inspissate entertainingness into a dull article. |
2. intr. To become thick or dense, to thicken.
| 1755 Wathen in Phil. Trans. XLIX. 214 It is..liable to inspissate by heat. 1836 Macgillivray tr. Humboldt's Trav. xvii. 225 Until the yolk..has time to inspissate. |