different between limbec vs limbeck

English

Etymology

See alembic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?mb?k/

Verb

limbec (third-person singular simple present limbecs, present participle limbecking, simple past and past participle limbecked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To distill.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

   • c. 1627, John Donne, A Nocturnal upon St. Lucie's Day, being the shortest day

     I, by Love's limbec, am the grave / Of all that's nothing.

Noun

limbec (plural limbecs)

1. An alembic; a still.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Macbeth

     the warder of the brain / Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason / A limbec only.

Anagrams

• emblic

English

Etymology

Apheticized form of alembic.

Noun

limbeck (plural limbecks)

1. (obsolete) An alembic.
   • , II.i.1:

     […] some of our modern chemists by their strange limbecks, by their spells, philosopher's stones and charms.

   • a. 1631, John Donne, ‘A nocturnall upon S. Lucies day’, Poems (1633):

     I, by loves limbecke, am the grave / Of all, that's nothing.

   • 1922, Alfred Edward Housman, Last Poems, III:

     Her strong enchantments failing,
     Her towers of fear in wreck,
     Her limbecks dried of poisons
     And the knife at her neck,
     The Queen of air and darkness
     Begins to shrill and cry,
     ‘O young man, O my slayer,
     To-morrow you shall die.’