The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Destructive \De*struc"tive\, a. [L. destructivus: cf. F.
   destructif.]
   Causing destruction; tending to bring about ruin, death, or
   devastation; ruinous; fatal; productive of serious evil;
   mischievous; pernicious; -- often with of or to; as,
   intemperance is destructive of health; evil examples are
   destructive to the morals of youth.
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         Time's destructive power.                --Wordsworth.
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   Destructive distillation. See Distillation.

   Destructive sorties(Logic), a process of reasoning which
      involves the denial of the first of a series of dependent
      propositions as a consequence of the denial of the last; a
      species of reductio ad absurdum. --Whately.

   Syn: Mortal; deadly; poisonous; fatal; ruinous; malignant;
        baleful; pernicious; mischievous.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Distillation \Dis`til*la"tion\ (d[i^]s`t[i^]l*l[=a]"sh[u^]n), n.
   [F. distillation, L. destillatio.]
   1. The act of falling in drops, or the act of pouring out in
      drops.
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   2. That which falls in drops. [R.] --Johnson
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   3. (Chem.) The separation of the volatile parts of a
      substance from the more fixed; specifically, the operation
      of driving off gas or vapor from volatile liquids or
      solids, by heat in a retort or still, and the condensation
      of the products as far as possible by a cool receiver,
      alembic, or condenser; rectification; vaporization;
      condensation; as, the distillation of illuminating gas and
      coal, of alcohol from sour mash, or of boric acid in
      steam.
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   Note: The evaporation of water, its condensation into clouds,
         and its precipitation as rain, dew, frost, snow, or
         hail, is an illustration of natural distillation.
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   4. The substance extracted by distilling. --Shak.
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   Destructive distillation (Chem.), the distillation,
      especially of complex solid substances, so that the
      ultimate constituents are separated or evolved in new
      compounds, -- usually requiring a high degree of heat; as,
      the destructive distillation of soft coal or of wood.

   Dry distillation, the distillation of substances by
      themselves, or without the addition of water or of other
      volatile solvent; as, the dry distillation of citric acid.


   Fractional distillation. (Chem.) See under Fractional.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

destructive distillation
    n 1: heating a solid substance in a closed container and
         collecting the volatile products