Distill - figurative meaning (2025)

Hi! Is there someone familiar with the figurative meaning of the verb distil and would be so kind as to explain it to me? As far as I know one can distil wisdom, thought, knowledge, essence from something meaning "draw, derive". I made some sentences. Am I using "distil" correctly here?

Davies's latest book is very instructive. Knowledge distilled from it helped me to understand what Poland went through during war time.
I can distil a lot of wisdom from my grandfather tales.
One thought distils clearly from Smith's article - rapprochement between Russia and European Union is out of the question.

Hi dreamlike

Your first two sentences work for me (though the second should have "... my grandfather's tales").

The third one doesn't work, though, because "distil" is transitive rather than intransitive....

In addition to what Loob has stated, it sounds like you are forcing the word "distill" into the second sentence as a carry over from the first.

I think something like this would work better:

Davies's latest book is very instructive. Knowledge distilled from it helped me to understand what Poland went through during war time.
I can still learn a lot from my grandfather tales.
One thought is clear from Smith's article - rapprochement between Russia and European Union is out of the question.

To distil is to extract one substance from another by heat and condensation. You distil the alcohol from, say, wine, to create a pure alcohol.

Figuratively, it means to obtain the essence, the concentrated article, uncontaminated and undiluted by anything else.

The reader in Davies's latest book is very instructive. Knowledge distilled from it helped me to understand what Poland went through during war time. read a whole book and distilled the knowledge from the whole which is composed of stories, opinions, descriptions, asides, as one would distil vodka from fermented potatoes.

Thanks for all you help.

Packard said:

it sounds like you are forcing the word "distill" into the second sentence as a carry over from the first.

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Well, I'm not surprised. Sometimes, when making sentence with some word it's hard for me to come up with something sounding both natural and correct.

Just a point of record: In the USA I usually see the "distill" version rather than the "distil" one.

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Yet another AMe/BRe distinction My dictionary failed to make it, however

Speaking of distil, does "Distilled into" mean summarised, abridged? A proverb is much matter distilled into few words Buckminster Fuller

I noticed your post and your explanation But if we summarise something, we give the most relevant information only - the essence, leaving out the rest. So in my opinion, "concentrated into" and "summarised" overlap to a certain extent.

CBSnews said:

GOP debate distilled into less than a minute

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Yes, but when using a word or phrase figuratively, it is best to keep as close to the literal meaning as possible.

You are correct when you say, "So in my opinion, "concentrated into" and "summarised" overlap to a certain extent." but look back at your first sentence in your first post.

Rododendro27 said:

Hello!!
Can I say...
"I have a distilled image of her" the idea is that you forgot all the problems that you might have had with a person so now you have a distilled image of her/him...
Is this possible to say in English?
Thank you

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I find "distilled" used with "image" forced and out of place. I think "idealized" probably works better in this case.

From Merriam-Webster:

idealize

: to think of or represent (someone or something) as being perfect

sanitize