[ad. mod.L. *lixīviātiōn-em, agent-n. f. lixīviāre: see prec. Cf. F. lixiviation.] The action or process of separating a soluble substance from one that is insoluble by the percolation of water, as salts from wood ashes.
1788. Trans. Soc. Arts, VI. 145. The Salt extracted from Barilla by lixiviation.
1805. Useful Projects, in Ann. Reg., 860/1. A solution which may be procured by the lixiviation of ashes.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., iv. (1814), 163. The water of lixiviation … will be found to contain the saline and soluble animal or vegetable matters if any exist in the soil.
1856. Livingstone, Last Jrnls. (1873), I. ii. 34. A good deal of salt is made by lixiviation of the soil.
1881. Jefferson Davis, Rise & Fall Confed. Govt., I. 477–8. The niter was obtained from lixiviation of nitrous earth found under old houses, barns, etc.
