distill

American  

[dih-stil] / dɪˈstɪl /

especially British, distil

verb (used with object)

• distils,
  present (3rd person singular)
• distilled,
  past participle,  past
• distilling
  present participle

1. to subject to a process of vaporization and subsequent condensation, as for purification or concentration.

2. to extract the volatile components of by distillation; transform by distillation.

3. to concentrate, purify, or obtain by or as by distillation.

   to distill whiskey from mash.

4. to remove by distillation (usually followed by off orout ).

   to distill out impurities.

5. to extract the essential elements of; refine; abstract.

   She managed to distill her ideas into one succinct article.

6. to let fall in drops; give forth in or as in drops.

   The cool of the night distills the dew.

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verb (used without object)

• distils,
  present (3rd person singular)
• distilled,
  past participle,  past
• distilling
  present participle

1. to undergo or perform distillation.

2. to become vaporized and then condensed in distillation.

3. to drop, pass, or condense as a distillate.

4. to fall in drops; trickle; exude.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• redistillableness
  noun
• redistill
  verb (used with object)
• distillable
  adjective
• nondistillable
  adjective
• redistillable
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• distilling
  present
• distilled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• distill
  simple
• distils
  simple
• have distilled
  perfect
• has distilled
  perfect
• am distilling
  progressive
• are distilling
  progressive
• is distilling
  progressive
• have been distilling
  perfect progressive
• has been distilling
  perfect progressive

Past

• distilled
  simple
• had distilled
  perfect
• was distilling
  progressive
• were distilling
  progressive
• had been distilling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will distill
  simple
• will have distilled
  perfect
• will be distilling
  progressive
• will have been distilling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of distill

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English distillen (from Anglo-French distiller ), from Latin distillāre, variant of dēstillāre, equivalent to dē- de- + stillāre to drip

Explanation

When you distill something, you are boiling it down to its essence — its most important part. Whether it's alcohol or ideas, the distilled part is the most powerful. The original meaning of distill comes from the process of making alcohol, known as distilling, in which all the impurities of a substance are vaporized and its pure, high-alcohol condensation collected. Distill eventually came to mean any process in which the essence of something is revealed. If you take notes at a lecture and then turn them into an essay for your professor, you're distilling your notes into something more pure and exact. At least, that's what you hope you're doing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

distill distils distilled distilling

In what was once a cottage industry, startups worth billions now pay humans to distill their hard-won subject-area expertise into lessons for the bots.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

“Diamond in a Coal Mine” and “Hey God” distill her roots and arrival.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026

Patience; communication, organizational and presentation skills; the ability to distill complex ideas; and project-management skills are all qualities and skills that can be valuable in many other professions.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 9, 2026

For the predictions to be accurate, or efficient, the platforms rely on a pool of traders to distill the wisdom of the crowd.

From Barron's ● Feb. 27, 2026

And he’s trying to distill all of these ideas into easily digestible chunks—science meets pop science.

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

The report, culminating a two-year evaluation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement goals, distils thousands of submissions from experts, governments and campaigners.

From Reuters ● Sep. 8, 2023

Sullivan says that the result he is proudest of is one he obtained in 1977, which distils the crucial properties of a space using a tool called rational homotopy.

From Scientific American ● Mar. 28, 2022

Ram developed a tool called Holepunch for projects that use the statistical programming language R. Holepunch distils the process of setting up Binder into four simple commands.

From Nature ● Nov. 4, 2019

Although it seems a trivial example, the video clearly distils many of Labour's key policies into a 38 second long video, and was aimed a young audience unlikely to watch a conventional political broadcast.

From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2018

Well, there may be a poison that distils itself out of good things; in an age when the existence of ptomaines is a mystery we should not wonder at anything!

From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

He distilled the disagreement into the dissent’s sharpest line.

From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026

Cowin’s own restraint and withholding yield images of distilled power.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026

On Wednesday, White House science and technology advisor Michael Kratsios shared on X that the government had obtained information showing that Kimi K3 was distilled from Anthropic’s Fable.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026

Kratsios said on X that the US government has information that Moonshot AI "distilled" capabilities from Anthropic's Fable AI for the development of its K3 model.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

She was, Sarai thought, like springtime distilled into a person.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Chinese developers have relied on a mix of ingenuity, state support, open-source sharing and distilling from U.S. models.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

After pausing distilling operations in Clermont, the company moved most of its production to its Booker Noe facility just down the street, named for Noe’s grandfather.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026

With the help of large handheld food mixers, they carefully grind the mixture of dried Californian grapes and water, which they then ferment before distilling it in a large still imported from Germany.

From Barron's ● May 2, 2026

Producers roast the rounded hearts of agave plants in fire pits or kilns, then crush and ferment the cooked material before distilling it in smaller batches.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 26, 2026

In Mr. Ferris’s physical science class we were distilling aspirins, very large aspirins, which by the time the last bell rang Mr. Ferris said he needed.

From "Okay for Now" by Gary D. Schmidt

Related Words

• condense
• extract
• infuse
• refine