Definition of "calcine"

(transitive)

1. (alchemy, historical) To heat (a substance) to remove its impurities and refine it.

2. (chemistry) To heat (a substance) without melting in order to drive off water, etc., and to oxidize or reduce it; specifically, to decompose (carbonates) into oxides, and, especially, to heat (limestone) to form quicklime.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Fire […] burneth and calcineth ſtone, vvhereof is made that morter vvhich bindeth all vvork in maſonry.

     1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XXXVI.] The Wonderfull Operations of Fire: The Medicinable Properties that It Hath: And the Prodigious Significations Observed thereby.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 2nd tome, London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635, page 599

   • I ſent you of his fæces there, calcin'd. / Out of that calx, I'ha'vvonne the ſalt of Mercurie.

     1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, Act II, scene iii

3. (by extension) To heat (something) to dry and sterilize it.  examples

4. (figuratively)

   1. To purify or refine (something).  examples

   2. To burn up (something) completely; to incinerate; hence, to destroy (something).  quotations  examples

      Quotations

      • [A]s his death calcined thee to duſt, / His life may make thee gold, and much more juſt.

        , George Herbert, “Easter”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […]; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, page 33

      • I vvould gladly knovv hovv Moſes vvith an actuall fire calcin'd or burnt the Golden Calfe unto povvder, for that myſticall metall of Gold, vvhoſe ſolary and celeſtiall nature I admire, expoſed unto the violence of fire, grovveth onely hot and liquifies, but conſumeth not: […]

        1642, Tho, published 1656, section 50, page 108

      • Fiery diſputes, that Union have calcin'd, / Almoſt as many minds as men vve find, / And vvhen that flame finds combuſtible Earth, / VVhence Fatuus fires and Meteors take their birth, / Legions of Sects, and Inſects come in throngs; / To name them all, vvould tire a hundred tongues.

        1668, John Denham, “The Progress of Learning”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, 4th edition, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], page 181

      • It nothing skills: I cannot help my case: / The Judgment's fire alone can cure this place, / Calcine its clods and set my prisoners free.

        1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], stanza 11, page 139

      • […] He fain had calcined all Northumbria / To one black ash, but that they patriot passion / Siding with our great Council against Tostig, / Out-passion'd his!

        1877, Alfred Tennyson, Harold: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., Act III, scene i, page 74

(intransitive, chemistry) Of a substance: to undergo heating so as to oxidize it.  quotations  examples

Something calcined; also, material left over after burning or roasting.  examples