crucible

CEFRC1

/ˈkɹuː.sɪ.bəl/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A container that can hold materials at very high temperatures.

  2. 02

    noun

    A difficult test that produces change or growth.

Examples

  • Due to improper procedures, the foundry had an excess of slag in the crucible.

  • Only one competitor can emerge from the crucible of losers' bracket.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A heat-resistant container in which metals are melted, usually at temperatures above 500°C, commonly made of graphite with clay as a binder.

  2. The bottom and hottest part of a blast furnace; the hearth.

  3. A cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment used to contain chemical compounds when heating them to very high temperatures.

More examples

In context

  • But, in considering an author and his works as one, a sufficient distinction is not drawn between the ideal and the real: the last is only given by being past through the crucible of the first.

  • Some of our ancestors faced trials that we will never know—the snows of Valley Forge; the crucible of a bitter, bloody civil war; and the incredible hardships endured in taming a savage wilderness.

  • Beowulf's mood as he gets ready to fight the dragon - who could be read as a projection of Beowulf's own chthonic wisdom refined in the crucible of experience - recalls the mood of other tragic heroes.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Deep check

The intense training program served as a blank that tested the physical and mental limits of the elite soldiers.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Latin crucibulum (“night-lamp, metallurgic melting-pot”), apparently a derivative of crux (“cross”), perhaps by analogy to thūribulum (“censer”) and suffix -bulum, or from crucio (“to torment”).