Decoct

//dəˈkɑkt// verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make an infusion.
  2. 2
    steep in hot water wordnet
  3. 3
    To reduce, or concentrate by boiling down.

    "Her ambition had hitherto been confined to being the best of wives,—so she scolded the servants—opened no book but her book of receipts—made soup without meat—decocted cowslips, parsneps, currants, and gooseberries, which, if not good wine, were very tolerable vinegar"

  4. 4
    be cooked until very little liquid is left wordnet
  5. 5
    To heat as if by boiling. figuratively

    "Can ſodden Water, / A Drench for ſur-reyn’d Iades, their Barly broth, / Decoct their cold blood to ſuch valiant heat?"

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    extract the essence of something by boiling it wordnet
  2. 7
    To reduce or diminish. figuratively

    "[…] and that rednesse / may neuere tournë to whiteness / (as clerkës sayn,) but yef so be / it be decoct by charyte, […]"

  3. 8
    To digest in the stomach.

    "Here ſhe [the body] attracts, and there ſhe doth retain; / There ſhe decocts, and doth the food prepare; / There ſhe diſtributes it to ev’ry vein, / There ſhe expels what ſhe may fitly ſpare."

  4. 9
    To devise. transitive

Etymology

From Latin decoquō (“I boil down”), from de- + coquō (“I cook”).

Next best steps

Mini challenge

Unscramble this word: decoct