zone-refineverb
Factsheet
What does the verb zone-refine mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the verb zone-refine. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
Entry status
OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.
How common is the verb zone-refine?
| 1960 | 0.019 |
| 1970 | 0.016 |
| 1980 | 0.014 |
| 1990 | 0.014 |
| 2000 | 0.0081 |
| 2010 | 0.0061 |
Where does the verb zone-refine come from?
Earliest known use
1960s
The earliest known use of the verb zone-refine is in the 1960s.
OED's earliest evidence for zone-refine is from 1962, in New Scientist.
Nearby entries
- zone fossil, n.1904–
- zoneless, adj.1748–
- zonelet, n.1855–
- zone level, v.1974–
- zone leveller, n.1956–
- zone levelling, n.1953–
- zone-melt, v.1982–
- zone melting, n.1952–
- zone plate, n.1890–
- zoner, n.1962–
- zone-refine, v.1962–
- zone refiner, n.1959–
- zone refining, n.1952–
- zone therapy, n.1915–
- zone time, n.1908–
- Zonian, n.1910–
- zonic, adj.1797–
- zoning, n.a1821–
- zonite, n.1860–
- zonitic, adj.1888–
- zonk, v.1950–
Meaning & use
- 1962–(transitive) .
- 1962
To zone-refine and produce single crystals from such [refractory] materials, N. V. Philips's Gloeilampenfabrieken, Eindhoven,..has developed a carbon-arc image furnace.
New Scientist 5 April 813/2 - 1978
Bismuth is normally regarded as a hard, brittle metal, yet when it has been zone refined it forms rods which can be bent without fracture.
P. W. Atkins, Physical Chemistry x. 301
society occupation and work industry working with specific materials working with metal [transitive verbs] work with metal refine by specific method- calcinec1386–To reduce to quick-lime, or to an analogous substance, by roasting or burning; ‘to burn in the fire to a calx or friable substance’ (Johnson).
- calcinate1559–1626= calcine, v.
- calcinize1606–56= calcine, v.
- cupel1644–transitive. To assay or refine in a cupel; to subject to cupellation.
- decrepitate1646–transitive. To calcine or roast (a salt or mineral) until it no longer crackles in the fire.
- scorify1755–transitive. To reduce to scoria or slag.
- cupellate1830–= cupel, v.
- retort1850–transitive. To heat (amalgam, oil shale, etc.) in a retort in order to separate or purify substances.
- liquate1864–Metallurgy. To liquefy metals in order to separate them or to free them from impurities. Also to liquate out.
- star1886–intransitive. Metallurgy. Of antimony: to form a starlike pattern of radially arranged crystals upon cooling from the molten state, indicative of…
- zone-refine1962–(transitive).
- zone level1974–(transitive).
- zone-melt1982–(transitive).
Frequency
zone-refine typically occurs about 0.01 times per million words in modern written English.
zone-refine is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of zone-refine, v., 1960–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.
| Decade | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 1960 | 0.019 |
| 1970 | 0.016 |
| 1980 | 0.014 |
| 1990 | 0.014 |
| 2000 | 0.0081 |
| 2010 | 0.0061 |