sb. Forms: 5 corusible, (kressibulle), 7– crucible, (7 crus-, chrus-, 8 cruzible). [ad. med.L. crucibulum, -bolum, orig. a night-lamp, later a melting pot for metals—the only English sense.
App. a deriv. of L. crux, crucis Cross: cf. the kindred words It. crociuolo, OF. croiseul, later F. croiset, creuset, f. It. croce, F. croix, and see Du Cange, Littré, Hatzfeld, who suggest for the original sense ‘lamp with crossed wicks giving 4 flames,’ but this is doubtful: cf. CRUSELL A 15th c. Vocabulary in Wright-Wülcker 576/9 has ‘Crassipulum, Crassipularium, Crucibolum, a Cresset,’ where the two synonyms appear to be derivatives of crassus fat, crassa grease; but their association with crucibolum appears to be due to popular etymology.]
1. A vessel, usually of earthenware, made to endure great heat, used for fusing metals, etc.; a melting-pot.
1460–70. Bk. Quintessence, 9. In þe corusible ȝe schal fynde þe gold calcyned and reducid into erþe.
1495. Nottingham Rec., III. 284. Item kressibulles iiijd.
1605. Timme, Quersit., II. iii. 113. Salt-peter remaineth liquid and fusible in a red hote crucible.
1611. Cotgr., Creuset, a cruzible, cruzet, or cruet; a little earthen pot wherein Goldsmithes melt their siluer, &c.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. iv. 26. A part of the metal is melted in the crucible.
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 5. Crucibles … are most commonly made of a mixture of fire-clay and sand, occasionally with the addition of plumbago.
1872. J. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 51. The gold was fused in clay crucibles.
b. A hollow or basin at the bottom of a furnace to collect the molten metal.
1864. in Webster.
1881. in Raymond, Mining Gloss.
2. fig. Used of any severe test or trial.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1688), II. 334. In this Limbec and Crusible of Affliction.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), III. 332. A ship is the crucible in which morals are put to the test.
1884. Annie S. Swan, Dorothea Kirke, xiv. 128. So in the crucible of pain we are purified.
1887. Spectator, 21 May, 683/2. He had lived through the Mutiny, he remembered when all India was in the crucible.
3. attrib. and Comb., as crucible-earth; crucible-steel, cast steel.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 232. Pipes … made of the best Crucible-earth.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 229. Take two pounds of crucible powder, of such as is commonly used for refining of silver.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 371/2. Crucible or cast-steel.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Sept., 6/2. The cable … will consist of six strands of crucible steel twisted round a Manilla centre.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Crucible v., to put into or melt in a crucible; Crucibled ppl. a. (fig. in quot.)
1796. Mod. Gulliver’s Trav., 164. Crucibled perversion’s threefold mask.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, III. 251. Had it been silver, it would doubtless have been crucibled long since.
