concoction
(kənˈkɒkʃən)
[ad. L. concoctiōnem digestion, n. of action f. concoquĕre to concoct.]
† 1. Digestion (of food). Obs.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. iii. xxii, A man hauing due concoction and digestion as is expedient. 1533 ― Cast. Helthe (1541) 74 b, Concoction is an alteration in the stomacke of meates and drynkes..wherby they are made lyke to the substance of the body. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece iv. xx. (1715) 405 The Heroes did not rest after Meals for the better Concoction of their Meat. 1757 A. Cooper Distiller ii. viii. (1760) 135 Cinnamon..strengthens the Viscera, assists Concoction. 1788 Lond. Mag. 32 Perfect concoction of the food. |
† b. The old physiology recognized three processes: first concoction, digestion in the stomach and intestines; second concoction, the process whereby the chyme so formed is changed into blood; third concoction, secretion.
| 1594 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 385 This [second] concoction is perfected in the small veines, that are dispersed throughout the body of the liuer. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 173 In this Triple faigned Concoction, there is a three-folde errour. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. ii. ii. (1651) 15 Humors of the third Concoction, Sweat and Teares. 1644 Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 101/2 The like also would not be unexpedient after meat to assist and cherish Nature in her first concoction. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 71 We have proved these Animal Spirits to be the ultimate result of all the concoctions of the Body. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v., The first Concoction is made in the Stomach by a Kind of Ferment. 1730–6 Bailey (folio) s.v., What alterations are made in the blood-vessels, which may be called the second Concoction, and that in the nerves, fibres and minutest vessels, the third and last Concoction. 1802 Paley Nat. Theol. vii. 75 From what part and by what concoction, in the human body, these principles are generated and derived. |
† c. fig. and in allusive phrases: e.g. a fault or error in the first concoction, i.e. in the initial stage, in the very beginning. Obs.
| a 1626 Bp. Andrewes Serm. xv. (1661) 505 This fault in the first concoction, is never after amended in the second. 1659 H. L'Estrange Alliance Div. Off. x, By former subscriptions they had allowed what was since of so hard concoction to them. 1693 Locke Educ. Ep. Ded., These [errors in education], like faults in the first Concoction, that are never mended in the second or third. 1733 P. Lindsay Interest Scotl. 148 Every Fault, every Failure in the Flax, is an Error in the first Concoction, not to be cured afterwards by any Skill or Labour. 1808 Bentham Sc. Reform 104 A chaos..such as the laws of this one country are doomed to be,—more particularly in their first concoction. |
† 2. Ripening, maturing, or bringing to a state of perfection; also, the state of perfection so produced: maturation of what is coarse, impure, or crude; ‘alteration of matter by moist heat’. Obs.
| 1555 Eden Decades 336 Puritie of substaunce and perfecte concoction which is in golde aboue all other metals. 1605 Timme Quersit. i. i. 3 Quintessences much laboured, circulated and wrought by digestions, concoctions, and fermentations. 1626 Bacon Sylva §838 The Degrees of Alteration, of one Body into another, from Crudity to perfect Concoction, which is the Ultimity of that Action or Processe. a 1631 Donne Select. (1840) 192 When..they [precious stones] haue exhaled..all their gross matter, and receiued another concoction from the sun, then they become precious. 1655 W. F. Meteors v. 145 Silver..hath indifferent good concoction in the Earth, but it wanteth sufficient heat in the mixture, that maketh it pale. 1726 Leoni tr. Alberti's Archit. I. 94 b, The air..being not kept in motion either by Sun or Winds, wants its due concoction. |
| fig. a 1630 Donne Lett. (1651) 317, I shall need no long concoction in the grave, but hasten to the resurrection. |
† b. The ‘ripening’ of morbific matter, fitting it for elimination from the living body. (According to Hippocrates, the second stage of disease.) See coction 4.
| 1685 J. Cooke Marrow Chirurg. (ed. 4) 449 (Hippocrates' Aphorisms) The first [Summer Quartan Fever] is shorter..from..clemency of the Air, which helps Concoction. 1834 Good Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 560 [Hippocrates] ascribed the Commotion [in fevers] to a fermentation, concoction, or ebullition, by which the noxious matter was separated from the sound humours. |
† 3. Baking or cooking. Obs.
| 1680 Morden Geog. Rect. (1685) 80 Raw Flesh..without the Concoction of Fire to prepare it for their Stomacks. |
4. The preparation of a medical potion, a soup, drink, or the like, from a variety of ingredients. b. concr. A broth, drink, etc., so concocted; any mixture that suggests such preparation.
| a 1851 Hawthorne Twice-told T. Ser. ii. Nt. Sketches, A concoction of mud and liquid filth, ancle-deep, leg-deep, neck-deep. Mod. Engaged in the concoction of whisky punch. |
5. The elaborate or ingenious composition, or making up (of a story, plot, scheme) to suit a purpose.
(Cf. Boswell's Johnson (1887) III. 259, which implies that ‘concoction of a play’ had no meaning to J.)
| 1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1858) III. 6 Jonson's inventive talent was never more conspicuous than in the concoction of court Masques. 1831 Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Admin. (1837) II. 127 The principles which would guide his party in the concoction of a Reform. Mod. They are absorbed in the concoction of a new plan for swindling their creditors. |
b. A statement or narrative fictitiously made up.
| 1885 Manch. Exam. 13 Feb. 5/1 His affidavit was a concoction from beginning to end. 1885 L'pool Daily Post 1 June 5/2 [He] admitted that his story was a concoction. |