Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MET'AL-LUR-GY, n. [Gr. μεταλλον, metal, and εργον, work.]

The art of working metals, comprehending the whole process of separating them from other matters in the ore, smelting, refining and parting them. Gilding is also a branch of metallurgy. But in a more limited and usual sense, metallurgy is the operation of separating metals from their ores. Encyc. The French include in metallurgy the art of drawing metals from the earth. Dict.