Crucible

Definitions

1. A cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment used to contain chemical compounds when heating them to very high temperatures.
2. A heat-resistant container in which metals are melted, usually at temperatures above 500°C, commonly made of graphite with clay as a binder.
3. The bottom and hottest part of a blast furnace; the hearth.
4. A very difficult and trying experience, that acts as a refining or hardening process.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“In one corner of the closet was a very small furnace, with a glowing fire in it, and on the fire a kind of duplicate crucible—two crucibles connected by a tube. One of these crucibles was nearly full of lead⟳ in a state of fusion, but not reaching up to the aperture of the tube, which was close⟳ to the brim.”

“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.”

“We should give⟳ our support⟳ to the liberation of the captive nations of the world and deliver⟳ our compatriots from their crucible of suffering. In other words, we should take⟳ up the difficult task of reshaping the world’s destiny by destroying the tyrannical Communist rule⟳ now afflicting the earth and by delivering humankind from the Red holocaust.”

“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.”

CEFR level