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''calcine'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''calcine'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

calcine - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

calcine (third-person singular simple present calcines, present participle calcining, simple past and past participle calcined)

  • (transitive)
    • (alchemy, historical) To heat (a substance) to remove its impurities and refine it.
    • (physical 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.
      • ✤ Synonyms: (obsolete) calcinate, chark
      • ✤ Fire […] burneth and calcineth ſtone, vvhereof is made that morter vvhich bindeth all vvork in maſonry.1
      • ✤ I ſent you of his fæces there, calcin’d./Out of that calx, I’ha’vvonne the ſalt of Mercurie.2
    • (by extension) To heat (something) to dry and sterilize it.
    • (figuratively)
      • To purify or refine (something).
      • To burn up (something) completely; to incinerate; hence, to destroy (something).
        • ✤ Synonym: (obsolete) calcinize
        • ✤ [A]s his death calcined thee to duſt,/His life may make thee gold, and much more juſt.3
        • ✤ 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: […]4
        • ✤ 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.5
        • ✤ 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.6
        • ✤ […] 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!7
  • (intransitive, physical chemistry) 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.8

Noun

calcine (plural calcines)

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

Etymology

The verb is derived from Late Middle English calcinen (“(alchemy, medicine) to heat (something) until it turns to powder; to change the nature of (something) by heating”) [and other forms],9 from Old French calciner (modern French calciner (“to calcinate; to calcine”)) and from its etymon Medieval Latin calcināre (“(alchemy) to burn like lime; to reduce to calx”),10 from Late Latin calcīna (“inorganic material containing calcium, lime”) + -āre (suffix forming present active infinitive forms of verbs). Calcīna is derived from Latin calcis, the genitive singular of calx (“chalk; limestone”),11 possibly from Ancient Greek χᾰ́λῐξ (khắlĭx, “small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble”); further etymology unknown, possibly Pre-Greek.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈkælsaɪn/, /-sɪn/, /kælˈsaɪn/
  • Audio (Southern England): Audio (Southern England): Audio (Southern England): 🔊 🔊 🔊
  • (General American) IPA: /ˈkælˌsaɪn/
  • Rhymes: (one pronunciation) -aɪn
  • Hyphenation: calc‧ine

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 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, →OCLC, page 599: ↩

  2. 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii: ↩

  3. [1633], 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, […], →OCLC, page 33: ↩

  4. 1642, Tho[mas] Browne, “The First Part”, in Religio Medici. […], 4th edition, London: […] E. Cotes for Andrew Crook […], published 1656, →OCLC, section 50, page 108: ↩

  5. 1668, John Denham, “The Progress of Learning”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: […] [John Macock] for H[enry] Herringman […], →OCLC, page 181: ↩

  6. 1855, Robert Browning, “‘ Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 11, page 139: ↩

  7. 1877, Alfred Tennyson, Harold: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 74: ↩

  8. a. 1728 (date written), Isaac Newton, “[The Third Book of Opticks.] [Qu[estion] 25. Are there not other original Properties of the Rays of Light, besides those already described?]”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light. […], 4th edition, London: […] William Innys […], published 1730, →OCLC, page 329: ↩

  9. “calcīnen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007. ↩

  10. “calcine, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021. ↩

  11. “calcine, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022. ↩

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