Distill
Etymology
From Latin “distillare,” to trickle down, from “de-” (down) and “stillare,” to drip, from “stilla,” a drop. Literal distillation vaporizes a liquid and condenses it drop by drop to separate the pure from the impure. The figurative sense keeps the promise: what drips out is the essence.
verb · /dih-STIL/
To extract the essential part of something by stripping away everything diluting it.
What it names
Concentration through subtraction — the useful opposite of padding, where value comes from what you remove.
Example
The memo distilled a forty-page report into three decisions the board actually had to make.
Related idea
To distill is to concentrate an essence; to gloss over is to skip detail dishonestly. Distilling keeps what matters; glossing hides what doesn’t suit you.
verb · /dih-STIL/
To purify or separate a liquid by heating it to vapor and cooling it back to liquid, as in making spirits or fresh water.
What it names
the chemical process of separation by evaporation and condensation
Example
Whisky is distilled from a fermented mash of grain.
Related idea
The figurative sense borrows this image exactly — boil off the inessential, keep the concentrated essence. Related to fermentation and reduce.