Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The parting of gold and silver by the use of nitric acid.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Chem. & Assaying) The act, process, or result (in the
process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold; -- called alsoinquartation . Compareparting .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun chemistry, archaic The act, process, or result (in the process of
parting ) ofalloying abutton of nearly puregold with enoughsilver to reduce thefineness so as to allowacids to attack and remove allmetals except the gold.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Latin quartus, "fourth", because usually enough silver is added to make the amount of gold in the alloyed button about one fourth.
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Examples
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