crucible /ˈkɹuː.sɪ.bəl/ noun4 •A cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment used to contain chemical compounds when heating them to very high temperatures.He turned the downstairs drawing room into a lab, installing a furnace, crucible, and fume hood, and stocking it with hundreds of beakers, flasks, pipes, and balances. — 2015 •(figurative) A very difficult and trying experience, that acts as a refining or hardening process.But, in considering an author and his works as one, a sufficient distinction is not drawn between the ideal and the real: the last is only given by being past through the crucible of the first. — 1837 •A heat-resistant container in which metals are melted, usually at temperatures above 500°C, commonly made of graphite with clay as a binder. •The bottom and hottest part of a blast furnace; the hearth. formscrucibles
