A crucible is a pot in which metals or other substances can be melted or heated up to very high temperatures.
2. singular noun
Crucible is used to refer to a situation in which something is tested or a conflict takes place, often one which produces something new.
[literary]
...a system in which ideas are tested in the crucible of party contention. [+ of]
The regime served as a crucible for the forging of right-wing ideas and values.
crucible in British English
(ˈkruːsɪbəl)
noun
1.
a vessel in which substances are heated to high temperatures
2.
the hearth at the bottom of a metallurgical furnace in which the metal collects
3.
a severe trial or test
Word origin
C15 corusible, from Medieval Latin crūcibulum night lamp, crucible, of uncertain origin
Crucible in British English
(ˈkruːsɪbəl)
noun
the Crucible
crucible in American English
(ˈkrusəbəl)
noun
1.
a container made of a substance that can resist great heat, for melting, fusing, or calcining ores, metals, etc.
2.
the hollow at the bottom of an ore furnace, where the molten metal collects
3.
a severe test or trial
Word origin
ML crucibulum, lamp, crucible, prob. < Gmc, as in OE cruce, pot, jug, MHG kruse, earthen pot (see cruse) + L suffix -ibulum (as in thuribulum, censer), but assoc. by folk etym. with L crux, cross, as if lamp burning before cross
Examples of 'crucible' in a sentence
crucible
This contributed to the collapse of global trade and the economic damage provided the crucible for conflict.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Everything converged on the labor movement, which proved the real crucible wherein the struggle was to be decided.
Kovel, Joel Red Hunting in the Promised Land: Anticommunism and the Making of America (1994)
True, that bastion of alternative culture is the crucible for much that the Right finds abhorrent.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Some are familiar, others forgotten, but together they compellingly evoke the linguistic crucible of war.