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decoct. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
decoct, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
decoct in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
decoct you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Latin decoquō (“I boil down”), from de- + coquō (“I cook”).
Pronunciation
Verb
decoct (third-person singular simple present decocts, present participle decocting, simple past and past participle decocted)
- (cooking) To make an infusion.
- (cooking) To reduce, or concentrate by boiling down.
1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IV, in Romance and Reality. , volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, , →OCLC, page 54: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
- (figurative) To heat as if by boiling.
1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 80, column 1:
- (figurative) To reduce or diminish.
1426 [c. 1330], Guillaume de Deguileville, translated by John Lydgate, edited by F. J. Furnivall, The Pilgrimage of the Life of Man, K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & co., translation of Le pèlerinage de la vie humaine (in Middle French), published 1904, page 655:[…] and that rednesse / may neuere tournë to whiteness / (as clerkës sayn,) but yef so be / it be decoct by charyte, […]- and that redness / may never turn to whiteness / (as clerics say), but if it does, / it will be decocted by Charity,
- To digest in the stomach.
a. 1626, Sir John Davies, The Original, Nature, and Immortality of the Soul, R. & A. Foulis, published 1759, page 46: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.
- (transitive) To devise.