cru·ci·ble

(kro͞o′sə-bəl)

1. A vessel made of a refractory substance such as graphite or porcelain, used for melting and calcining materials at high temperatures.

a. An extremely difficult experience or situation; a severe test or trial: "the emotional crucible of a wartime deployment" (Kristin Henderson). See Synonyms at trial.

b. A place, time, or situation in which different social forces or intellectual influences come together and cause new developments: "Macroeconomics ... was cast in the crucible of the Depression" (Peter Passell).

[Middle English crusible, from Medieval Latin crūcibulum, night-light, crucible, possibly from Old French croisuel, cresset; see cresset.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

crucible

(ˈkruːsɪbəl)

1. (Chemistry) a vessel in which substances are heated to high temperatures

2. (Metallurgy) the hearth at the bottom of a metallurgical furnace in which the metal collects

3. a severe trial or test

[C15 corusible, from Medieval Latin crūcibulum night lamp, crucible, of uncertain origin]

Crucible

(ˈkruːsɪbəl)

(Named Buildings) the Crucible a Sheffield theatre, venue of the annual world professional snooker championship

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cru•ci•ble

(ˈkru sə bəl)

n.

1. a container of metal or refractory material employed for heating substances to high temperatures.

2. a hollow area at the bottom of a furnace in which the metal collects.

3. a severe test or trial, esp. one that causes a lasting change or influence.

[1400–50; late Middle English crusible, corusible < Medieval Latin crucibulum; compare Anglo-French crusil, Old French croisuel, croisol night lamp, crucible < Gallo-Romance *croceolus]

cru·ci·ble

(kro͞o′sə-bəl)

A heat-resistant container used to melt ores, metals, and other materials.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

crucible - a vessel made of material that does not melt easily; used for high temperature chemical reactions

melting pot

vessel - an object used as a container (especially for liquids)

crucible

noun

A state of pain or anguish that tests one's resiliency and character:

ordeal, trial, tribulation, visitation.

Translations

بوتَقَـه

tyglík

smeltedigel

Schmelztiegel Tiegel

creuset

olvasztótégely

deigla

crogiolo

tiglis

tīģelis

téglik

crucible

[ˈkruːsɪbl] N → crisol m (also fig)

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

crucible

n → (Schmelz)tiegel m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

crucible

[ˈkruːsɪbl] n → crogiolo

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

crucible

(ˈkruːsibl) noun

a pot in which metals etc may be melted. He heated the chemicals in a crucible in the laboratory.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"Ah!" said the archdeacon, "a crucible for alchemy."

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Near this miserable Seeker sat a little elderly personage, wearing a high-crowned hat, shaped somewhat like a crucible. He was from beyond the sea, a Doctor Cacaphodel, who had wilted and dried himself into a mummy by continually stooping over charcoal furnaces, and inhaling unwholesome fumes during his researches in chemistry and alchemy.

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(27) The epithet (which means literally `well-bored') seems to refer to the spout of the crucible. (28) The fire god.

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I'll get a crucible, and into it, and dissolve myself down to one small, compendious vertebra.

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Thus, in the crucible of shame amidst the white heat of naked truths, the passion that the man had felt for the girl he had considered his social inferior was transmuted into love.

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The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted and that the elixir of life is a chimera but these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles.

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I will not take you unready for your task, in order to cast you into the crucible of my own desires, of my caprice, or my ambition.

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It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one's face a mask of glass, nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams.

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During the next half-century and more, my race must continue passing through the severe American crucible. We are to be tested in our patience, our forbearance, our perseverance, our power to endure wrong, to withstand temptations, to economize, to acquire and use skill; in our ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all.

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The whole of one side of the laboratory was taken up with a large chimney, crucibles, ovens, and such implements as are needed for chemical experiments; tables, loaded with phials, papers, reports, an electrical machine,--an apparatus, as Monsieur Darzac informed me, employed by Professor Stangerson to demonstrate the Dissociation of Matter under the action of solar light--and other scientific implements.

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I saw iron ladles, pans full of white sand, files with white metal left glittering in their teeth, molds of plaster of Paris, bags containing the same material in powder, a powerful machine with the name and use of which I was theoretically not unacquainted, white metal in a partially-fused state, bottles of aquafortis, dies scattered over a dresser, crucibles, sandpaper, bars of metal, and edged tools in plenty, of the strangest construction.

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Have you really measured the world by scrutinies, or through alembics and crucibles? For you must indeed be a great chemist, and the elixir you administered to my son, which recalled him to life almost instantaneously" --

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