ALCHEMY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Alchemy

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/ˈælkəmi/ Listen

noun

Alchemy n.

An imaginary art which aimed to transmute the baser metals into gold, to find the panacea, or universal remedy for diseases, etc. It led the way to modern chemistry.

A mixed metal composed mainly of brass, formerly used for various utensils; hence, a trumpet. (Obs.) "Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy."

Miraculous power of transmuting something common into something precious. "Kissing with golden face the meadows green, Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy."

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Etymology of 'Alchemy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Alchemy" Quotes from Famous Books

... into a speculation concerning the nature and origin of those agreeable emotions which are so generally produced by the sight of objects that suggest the ideas of decay and desolation. It is happy for us, that, by the alchemy of poetry, we are able to turn some of our misfortunes into sources of melancholy pleasure, after the poignancy of grief has been assuaged by time. Nature has beneficently provided, also, that many an object, ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 22, Aug., 1859 • Various

... called Yao-pien, whose tints are transmuted by the alchemy of fire; for they enter blood-crimson into the heat, and change there to lizard-green, and at last come forth azure as the cheek of ...

— Some Chinese Ghosts • Lafcadio Hearn

... by God glorifies God, as showing the most wonderful working of His power in making such a man out of such material, by an alchemy that can convert base metal into fine gold; as showing the most wonderful condescension of His love in taking to His heart man, into whose flesh the rotting ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - Isaiah and Jeremiah • Alexander Maclaren

... social alchemy, my dear Paul, is to get the most we can out of each age of life through which we pass; to have and to hold the buds of our spring, the flowers of our summer, the fruits of our autumn. We amused ourselves once, ...

— The Marriage Contract • Honore de Balzac

... "Nowadays alchemy and necromancy awaken nothing but curiosity. How then can one who thinks and reasons admit that an art can be cultivated and sustained by theories extravagant, fantastic, enigmatic, explained and condensed in abstruse phrases and sentences, which not only have no meaning whatever, but even ...

— The Psychology of Singing - A Rational Method of Voice Culture Based on a Scientific Analysis of All Systems, Ancient and Modern • David C. Taylor

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