cupel

[kyoo-puh l, kyoo-pel]

noun

a small, cuplike, porous container, usually made of bone ash, used in assaying, as for separating gold and silver from lead.
a receptacle or furnace bottom in which silver is refined.

verb (used with object), cu·peled, cu·pel·ing or (especially British) cu·pelled, cu·pel·ling.

to heat or refine in a cupel.

Origin of cupel

1595–1605; < Medieval Latin cūpella, equivalent to Latin cūp(a) tub + -ella diminutive suffix

Related formscu·pel·er

[kyoo-puh-ler] /ˈkyu pə lər/, cu·pel·ler

[kyoo-pel-er] /kyuˈpɛl ər/, nouncu·pel·la·tion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cupel

Historical Examples of cupel

That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom.
The Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce
Money is to be the cupel of their worth, as it is of all other classes.
Tancred
Benjamin Disraeli
The base metals oxydize and are absorbed with the lead into the pores of the cupel.
Roughing It
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
It was observed that, in this case, a portion of the silver had passed into the cupel.
A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures and Mines
Andrew Ure
Unlike silver, gold will bear the highest heat of the furnace without vegetating, fuming, or being absorbed by the cupel.
Cooley's Cyclopdia of Practical Receipts and Collateral Information in the Arts, Manufactures, Professions, and Trades..., Sixth Edition, Volume I
Arnold Cooley

British Dictionary definitions for cupel

cupel

noun

a refractory pot in which gold or silver is refined
a small porous bowl made of bone ash in which gold and silver are recovered from a lead button during assaying

verb -pels, -pelling or -pelled or US -pels, -peling or -peled

(tr) to refine (gold or silver) by means of cupellation

Derived Formscupeller, noun

Word Origin for cupel

C17: from French coupelle, diminutive of coupe cup

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012