De*coc"tion (?), n. [F. d'ecoction, L. decoctio.]
1.
The act or process of boiling anything in a watery fluid to extract its virtues.
In decoction . . . it either purgeth at the top or settleth at the bottom.
Bacon.
2.
An extract got from a body by boiling it in water.
If the plant be boiled in water, the strained liquor is called the decoction of the plant.
Arbuthnot.
In pharmacy decoction is opposed to infusion, where there is merely steeping.
Latham.
© Webster 1913.