decoction
(dɪˈkɒkʃən)
Also 4–5 -cyon, 5–6 -cioun, 6 decokcien.
[a. OF. decoction, -cocciun (13th c.), ad. L. dēcoctiōn-em, n. of action f. dēcoquĕre to decoct.]
1. The action of decocting; esp. boiling in water or other liquid so as to extract the soluble parts or principles of the substance.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 82 (Mätz.) The coke by mesour sesonyth his potages..By decoccioune to take theyr avauntages. 1502 Arnolde Chron. 165 Moysted w{supt} water of the decokcien of benes. 1605 Timme Quersit. i. vi. 24 The airey..parts..are separated by decoction. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 112 This Plant affords a very soft mucilaginous Substance in Decoction. 1807 T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 357 Catechu..is a substance obtained by decoction and evaporation from a species of mimosa which abounds in India. |
† b. Digestion. Obs.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helth (1541) 8 b, By insufficient decoction in the second digestion. 1658 A. Fox Wurtz' Surg. i. ix. 36 The stomack hath a decoction to digest the meats he feedeth on. |
† 2. Maturing or perfecting by heat; esp. of metals or mineral ores. Obs.
(Pertaining to old notions as to the composition and formation of metals: cf. concoction 2.)
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. xxxiii, To white he tourneth with his beames shene Both sede and graine by decoction. 1555 Eden Decades 334 By the helpe of fermentacion and decoction of the minerall heate. 1577–87 Harrison England iii. xi. 237 The substance of sulphur and quicksiluer being mixed in due proportion, after long and temperate decoction in the bowels of the earth..becommeth gold. 1671 J. Webster Metallogr. iv. 73 According to the variety of the degrees of decoction and alteration, into divers metallick forms. |
† 3. Reduction by evaporation in boiling, boiling down; fig. reduction. Obs.
| 1650 Fuller Pisgah i. ii. viii. 174 The body of his men remaining was still too big, and must pass another decoction. 1655 ― Ch. Hist. iii. v. §34 Four and twenty prime persons were chosen..which soon after (to make them the more cordiall) passed a decoction, and were reduced to three. |
4. A liquor in which a substance, usually animal or vegetable, has been boiled, and in which the principles thus extracted are dissolved; spec. as a medicinal agent.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. ciii. (Tollem. MS.), Þis ston [lapis lazuli] schal not be ȝeue with decoccyon. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 216 Waische þe place wiþ a decoccioun of camomille. 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 8 Decoctions..be liquors and other thynges boyled together and then strayned. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1673) 332 A ‘decoction’ is..the broath of certain hearbs or simples boyled together in water till the third part be consumed. 1741 Berkeley Let. Wks. 1871 IV. 266 The receipt of a decoction of briar-roots for the bloody flux. 1833 J. Rennie Alph. Angling, Lines..tinted by a decoction of oak bark. |