encrust

[ en-kruhst ]

verb (used with object)

1. to cover or line with a crust or hard coating.
2. to form into a crust.
3. to deposit as a crust.

verb (used without object)

1. to form a crust:

   They scraped off the barnacles that always encrusted on the ship's hull.

encrust

/ ɪnˈkrʌst /

verb

1. tr to cover or overlay with or as with a crust or hard coating
2. to form or cause to form a crust or hard coating
3. tr to decorate lavishly, as with jewels

Derived Forms

• ˌencrusˈtation, noun

Other Words From

• en·crustant adjective noun
• nonen·crusting adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of encrust¹

First recorded in 1635–45 for incrust and 1710–20 for encrust; from Old French encrouster, incrouster, from Latin incrustāre “to cover with a layer, rind, or crust; daub”; en- ¹, crust

Example Sentences

The palm-sized find was metallic, but so dirt-encrusted he couldn’t make out what it was.

From Popular-Science

You know Paris Hilton is an icon because even other stars can’t resist basking in the glow of her Swarovski-encrusted, Barbie-pink aura.

From Time

Following a seaside holiday, Marcus Samuel came up with the idea of selling shell-encrusted boxes as souvenirs.

From Washington Post

The worst moments, of course, are those few seconds between taking off all your ice-encrusted layers and stepping into that life-changing shower.

From Outside Online

Among the prizes for grabs include a year of free stays at the luxury Shangri-La Hotels, a vintage diamond-encrusted Rolex, rare tea leaves that legend says once cured an emperor’s ailing mother and health insurance.

From Time

They constitute the greater number by far of the hard minerals which encrust the terrestrial globe.

From Project Gutenberg

Poetry has no golden mean; mediocrity here is of another metal, which Voltaire, however, had skill enough to encrust and polish.

From Project Gutenberg

Some marine algae which secrete carbonate of lime not only encrust rocks but give rise to sheets of submarine limestone.

From Project Gutenberg

A constant sense of gloom is settled like a pall over the whole building, blacker even than the soot and grime which encrust it.

From Project Gutenberg

Coral limestones encrust the lower slopes of these islands and do not attain a greater thickness than 150 feet.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• blacken
• smear
• smudge
• sully