[ad. L. concoctiōnem digestion, n. of action f. concoquĕre to CONCOCT.]
† 1. Digestion (of food). Obs.
1531. Elyot, Gov., III. xxii. A man hauing due concoction and digestion as is expedient. Ibid. (1533), Cast. Helthe (1541), 74 b. Concoction is an alteration in the stomacke of meates and drynkes … wherby they are made lyke to the substance of the body.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, IV. xx. (1715), 405. The Heroes did not rest after Meals for the better Concoction of their Meat.
1757. A. Cooper, Distiller, II. viii. (1760), 135. Cinnamon … strengthens the Viscera, assists Concoction.
1788. Lond. Mag., 32. Perfect concoction of the food.
† b. The old physiology recognized three processes: First concoction, digestion in the stomach and intestines; Second concoction, the process whereby the chyme so formed is changed into blood; Third concoction, secretion.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 385. This [second] concoction is perfected in the small veines, that are dispersed throughout the body of the liuer.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 173. In this Triple faigned Concoction, there is a three-folde errour.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. ii. (1651), 15. Humors of the third Concoction, Sweat and Teares.
1644. Milton, Educ., Wks. (1847), 101/2. The like also would not be unexpedient after meat to assist and cherish Nature in her first concoction.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 71. We have proved these Animal Spirits to be the ultimate result of all the concoctions of the Body.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v., The first Concoction is made in the Stomach by a Kind of Ferment.
1730–6. Bailey (folio), s.v., What alterations are made in the blood-vessels, which may be called the second Concoction, and that in the nerves, fibres and minutest vessels, the third and last Concoction.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., vii. 75. From what part and by what concoction, in the human body, these principles are generated and derived.
† c. fig. and in allusive phrases: e.g., A fault or error in the first concoction, i.e., in the initial stage, in the very beginning. Obs.
a. 1626. Bp. Andrewes, Serm., xv. (1661), 505. This fault in the first concoction, is never after amended in the second.
1659. H. L’Estrange, Alliance Div. Off., x. By former subscriptions they had allowed what was since of so hard concoction to them.
1693. Locke, Educ., Ep. Ded. These [errors in education], like faults in the first Concoction, that are never mended in the second or third.
1733. P. Lindsay, Interest Scotl., 148. Every Fault, every Failure in the Flax, is an Error in the first Concoction, not to be cured afterwards by any Skill or Labour.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 104. A chaos … such as the laws of this one country are doomed to be,—more particularly in their first concoction.
† 2. Ripening, maturing, or bringing to a state of perfection; also, the state of perfection so produced: maturation of what is coarse, impure, or crude; ‘alteration of matter by moist heat.’ Obs.
1555. Eden, Decades, 336. Puritie of substaunce and perfecte concoction which is in golde aboue all other metals.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. i. 3. Quintessences much laboured, circulated and wrought by digestions, concoctions, and fermentations.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 838. The Degrees of Alteration, of one Body into another, from Crudity to perfect Concoction, which is the Ultimity of that Action or Processe.
a. 1631. Donne, Select. (1840), 192. When … they [precious stones] haue exhaled … all their gross matter, and receiued another concoction from the sun, then they become precious.
1655. W. F., Meteors, V. 145. Silver … hath indifferent good concoction in the Earth, but it wanteth sufficient heat in the mixture, that maketh it pale.
1726. Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 94 b. The air … being not kept in motion either by Sun or Winds, wants its due concoction.
fig. a. 1630. Donne, Lett. (1651), 317. I shall need no long concoction in the grave, but hasten to the resurrection.
† b. The ‘ripening’ of morbific matter, fitting it for elimination from the living body. (According to Hippocrates, the second stage of disease.) See COCTION 4.
1685. J. Cooke, Marrow Chirurg. (ed. 4), 449 (Hippocrates’ Aphorisms). The first [Summer Quartan Fever] is shorter … from … clemency of the Air, which helps Concoction.
1834. Good, Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 569. [Hippocrates] ascribed the Commotion [in fevers] to a fermentation, concoction, or ebullition, by which the noxious matter was separated from the sound humours.
† 3. Baking or cooking. Obs.
1680. Morden, Geog. Rect. (1685), 80. Raw Flesh … without the Concoction of Fire to prepare it for their Stomacks.
4. The preparation of a medical potion, a soup, drink, or the like, from a variety of ingredients. b. concr. A broth, drink, etc., so concocted; any mixture that suggests such preparation.
a. 1851. Hawthorne, Twice-told T., Ser. II. Nt. Sketches. A concoction of mud and liquid filth, ancle-deep, leg-deep, neck-deep.
Mod. Engaged in the concoction of whisky punch.
5. The elaborate or ingenious composition, or making up (of a story, plot, scheme) to suit a purpose.
(Cf. Boswell’s Johnson (1887), III. 259, which implies that ‘concoction of a play’ had no meaning to J.)
1823. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1858), III. 6. Jonson’s inventive talent was never more conspicuous than in the concoction of court Masques.
1831. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Admin. (1837), II. 127. The principles which would guide his party in the concoction of a Reform.
Mod. They are absorbed in the concoction of a new plan for swindling their creditors.
b. A statement or narrative fictitiously made up.
1885. Manch. Exam., 13 Feb., 5/1. His affidavit was a concoction from beginning to end.
1885. L’pool Daily Post, 1 June, 5/2. [He] admitted that his story was a concoction.
