crucible

IPA: krˈusʌbʌɫ

(chemistry) A cup-shaped piece of laboratory equipment used to contain chemical compounds when heating them to very high temperatures.
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.
(figuratively) A very difficult and trying experience, that acts as a refining or hardening process.

Examples of "crucible" in Sentences

Bollingen, which Jung considered his alchemical crucible, is dismissed by Giegerich as
And someone else's knowledge, I found, was never my own, for the crucible is the experience.
The town of Asuka, often described as the crucible of Japanese civilization, was a cosmopolitan melting pot in the seventh century.
The scope of the crucible is always brought home to me by one single moment: The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff on January 30, 1945.
In this crucible is formed the young Naipaul, who writes home from Oxford to Seepersad Naipaul, his beloved and writerly father and mentor, to say: I want to come top of my group.
Indeed, cross-examination is often referred to as the crucible of the truth: Combine a defense attorney's direct examination with a forceful cross-examination, and therein a juror discovers the truth.
There was the withdrawal of a tiny crucible from the white heat of the furnace, and the sliding back of the door, and then the crucible was a dazzling light fleck that danced through the blackness toward one of the workbenches.