Literary notes about decant (AI summary)
The term "decant" is employed with versatility in literature, serving both its literal sense—pouring off a liquid carefully to separate it from sediment—and a more figurative purpose. In technical and culinary contexts, it describes the meticulous process of transferring a clarified liquid by leaving impurities behind, as seen when instructions guide one to decant clear liquor from sediment after letting it stand (e.g., [1], [2], [3]). At the same time, the word takes on symbolic connotations, evoking the idea of selective refinement or even publicizing something noteworthy, seen in passages where decant means to "sing, to publish or make famous" ([4]), or is used in vivid narratives to denote the careful handling of precious beverages ([5], [6]). This duality in usage enriches the text, blending scientific precision with literary expressiveness in a way that underscores the importance of a deliberate, discerning transfer—whether of liquid, information, or experience ([7], [8]).
- Boil for two minutes; allow the precipitated calcium oxalate to settle for a half-hour, and decant through a filter.
— from An Introductory Course of Quantitative Chemical AnalysisWith Explanatory Notes by Henry Paul Talbot - In a cup with good tea leaves pour clean boiling water and allow to stand five or six minutes; decant and drink slowly.
— from Birds and All Nature, Vol. 6, No. 4, November 1899
In Natural Colors by Various - Cover it, and leave for forty-eight hours; then decant into bottles, being careful to leave all sediment behind.
— from What Shall We Do Now?: Five Hundred Games and Pastimes by Dorothy Canfield Fisher - Decantáre, to sing, to publish or make famous.
— from Queen Anna's New World of Words; or, Dictionarie of the Italian and English Tongues by John Florio - "Michael, didn't I tell you to decant the best claret?"
— from Mr. Punch's Irish Humour in Picture and Story - I wish I could have stayed to decant some port."
— from The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - It runs north-east, and then abruptly passes north to decant into the West Dart.
— from A Book of DartmoorSecond Edition by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - The vessel being produced, I bade him decant his bottle into it, which he having done, I nodded in a very deliberate manner, and said, “Pledge you.”
— from The Adventures of Roderick Random by T. Smollett