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decant

UK/dəˈkænt/US/dəˈkænt/
verbC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — decanter sits at #12,637leans spoken

Other forms: decanted, decanting

To decant is to pour liquid gently from one vessel to another. Decant the wine.

The point is to leave the sediment behind, which is why it is done slowly against a light. People also decant a crowd out of a building, which is the same idea used loosely.

Andi schmitt · CC BY 4.0

Definitions of decant

  1. 1verbdecantTo pour liquid gently from one vessel to another.C1

    “He decanted it an hour before anybody arrived.”

decant is a pouring.

Where it comes from

From Medieval Latin decanthare, to pour off from the lip, from canthus, the rim of a vessel.

  1. Medieval Latin

    dēcanthō

  2. French

    décanter

  3. English, today

    decant

From French décanter, from Medieval Latin dēcanthō, from dē- + canthus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

decant in the wild

  • A settling basin, settling pond or decant pond is an earthen or concrete structure using sedimentation to remove settleable matter and turbidity from wastewater.

    Settling basin

  • Matured red wines, including claret, throw a deposit of sediment, and various methods and machines were designed to decant the wine into another container, leaving the sediment behind.

    Silver claret jug

  • Strong red wines also taste better after a certain period exposed to the air, which the decanting process and the jug shape achieved.

    Silver claret jug

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the décanter family

decanter

decant — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others