Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A porous cup, often made of bone ash, used in assaying to separate precious metals from base elements such as lead.
- noun The bottom or receptacle in a silver-refining furnace.
- transitive verb To assay or separate from base metals in a cupel.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In metallurgy, a small vessel made of pulverized bone-earth, in the form of a frustum of a cone, with a cavity in the larger end, in which lead containing gold and silver is cupeled. See
cupellation . - To perform the process of cupellation upon.
- noun The hearth of a cupellation furnace in which silver is separated from lead; a test. See
test , 2.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A shallow porous cup, used in refining precious metals, commonly made of bone ashes (phosphate of lime).
- noun powder used in purifying metals.
- transitive verb To refine by means of a cupel.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A small circular receptacle used in assaying gold or silver with lead.
- verb To
refine by means of a cupel.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a small porous bowl made of bone ash used in assaying to separate precious metals from e.g. lead
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake of silver and the two are melted at a great heat in a small vessel called a cupel, made by compressing bone ashes into a cup-shape in a steel mold.
Roughing It Mark Twain 1872
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Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake of silver and the two are melted at a great heat in a small vessel called a cupel, made by compressing bone ashes into a cup-shape in a steel mold.
Roughing It, Part 4. Mark Twain 1872
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Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake of silver and the two are melted at a great heat in a small vessel called a cupel, made by compressing bone ashes into a cup-shape in a steel mold.
Roughing It 1871
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June 28, 2008 at 3:53 am oh and I needz u to go ahead nd cum in on sunday 2. c we haz had a cupel uf layofs nd we sorta needz to pleh catchup
Yeaaah…I’m gonna need you - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008
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You need to do it in a cupel of circumstances, when you are working on something or talking to someone.
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I sawd a led baloon fly on myfbusterz a cupel uv weeks ago.
i gotz u a rly good book… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008
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January 12, 2008 at 1:28 pm salesman kitteh sez to cupel:
THIRD WHEEL CAT - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008
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FIRE ASSAY* smelting with gold collector, separation, cupellation muffle or retort furnace, crucible, cupel taste (assay) lead, borax, soda, potash chemical
Chapter 20 1993
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-- Ordinary lead is calcined in a cupel made of cinders or powdered bones; the lead is changed to a cinder which disappears into the cupel, and a button of silver remains.
The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry M. M. Pattison Muir
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That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom.
INTERNET WIRETAP: The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce (1993 Edition) 1911
yarb commented on the word cupel
Silver assays will be adjusted for slag and cupel losses.
- contract for refining of lead and silver ore.
January 22, 2009