Decoction

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Decoction \De*coc"tion\, n. [F. d['e]coction, L. decoctio.]
     1. The act or process of boiling anything in a watery fluid
        to extract its virtues.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In decoction . . . it either purgeth at the top or


              settleth at the bottom.               --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. An extract got from a body by boiling it in water.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              If the plant be boiled in water, the strained liquor
              is called the decoction of the plant. --Arbuthnot.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In pharmacy decoction is opposed to infusion, where
              there is merely steeping.             --Latham.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  decoction
       n : (pharmacology) the extraction by boiling of water-soluble
           drug substances

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  55 Moby Thesaurus words for "decoction":
     boil, boiling, brew, chemical solution, coction, combination,
     composition, concentrate, concentration, concoction, confection,
     decoctum, distillate, distillation, ebullience, ebulliency,
     ebulliometer, ebullition, elixir, essence, expression, extract,
     extraction, imbuement, impregnation, infiltration, infusion,
     instillation, instillment, interpenetration, leach, leachate,
     lixivium, marination, mixture, penetration, permeation, pervasion,
     pressing, purification, quintessence, refinement, rendering,
     rendition, saturation, seething, simmer, simmering, soaking,
     solution, spirit, squeezing, steeping, stewing, suffusion
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  DECOCTION, med. jurisp. The operation of boiling certain ingredients in a 
  fluid, for the purpose of extracting the parts soluble at that temperature. 
  Decoction also means the product of this operation. 
       2. In a case in which the indictment charged the prisoner with having 
  administered to a woman a decoction of a certain shrub called savin, it 
  appeared that the prisoner had administered an infusion (q.v.) and not a 
  decoction; the prisoner's counsel insisted that he was entitled to an 
  acquittal, on the ground that the medicine was misdescribed, but it was held 
  that infusion and decoction are ejusdem generis, and that the variance was 
  immaterial. 3 Camp. R. 74, 75.