1purify (a liquid) by heating it so that it vaporizes, then cooling and condensing the vapour and collecting the resulting liquid:they managed to distil a small quantity of water (as adjective distilled)distilled water
make (spirits or an essence) by distilling:whisky is distilled from a mash of grains (as noun distilling)the distilling industry
extract the essence of (something) by heating it with a solvent:distil the leaves of some agrimony
remove (a volatile constituent) of a mixture by heating:coal tar is made by distilling out the volatile products in coal
[no object] literary emanate as a vapour or in minute drops:she drew back from the dank breath that distilled out of the earth
2extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of:my travel notes were distilled into a book (as adjective distilled)the report is a distilled version of the main accounts
