cupel
Americannoun
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a small, cuplike, porous container, usually made of bone ash, used in assaying, as for separating gold and silver from lead.
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a receptacle or furnace bottom in which silver is refined.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a refractory pot in which gold or silver is refined
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a small porous bowl made of bone ash in which gold and silver are recovered from a lead button during assaying
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of cupel
1595–1605; < Medieval Latin cūpella, equivalent to Latin cūp ( a ) tub + -ella diminutive suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The button which settles at the bottom should be transferred to a cupel, and should be re-melted, in order that the lead may be separated from the silver.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
Finally, rub the gold which has settled in the bottom of the cupel, after it has been taken out and cooled, on the touchstone, in order to find out what proportion of silver it contains.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
The resulting alloy, which is called the lead button, is then submitted to fusion on a very porous support, made of bone-ash, and called a cupel.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 "Arundel, Thomas" to "Athens" by Various
When the lead has absorbed the silver which was in the tin, then, and not till then, it is heated in the cupel.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
Tin which contains silver should not at the beginning of the assay be placed in a cupel, lest the silver, as often happens, be consumed and converted into fumes, together with the tin.
From De Re Metallica, Translated from the First Latin Edition of 1556 by Agricola, Georgius
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
