calcine

verb

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

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

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

3. (broadly, transitive)To heat (something) to dry and sterilize it.
4. (figuratively, transitive)To purify or refine (something).
5. (figuratively, transitive)To burn up (something) completely; to incinerate; hence, to destroy (something).

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

   “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: […]”

   “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.”

   “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.”

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

6. (intransitive, physical)Of a substance: to undergo heating so as to oxidize it.

   “This Cryſtal is a pellucid fiſſile Stone, clear as Water or Cryſtal of the Rock, and without Colour; enduring a red Heat without loſing its tranſparency, and in a very ſtrong Heat calcining without Fuſion.”

noun

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