encrust

Also in·crust

[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

Other Word Forms

• encrustant adjective
• nonencrusting adjective
• encrustation 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

Another smelled like a pile of wet rope encrusted with seaweed and left to rot in the sun, and a nasty, fishy aroma it was.

Read more on Literature

On first looking upon the object, Stais regarded it as nothing more than a large pile of encrusted bronze.

Read more on Literature

Burns says that was all part of figuring out “how to loosen the barnacles of sentimentality that have encrusted themselves” on the war.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Police also found on the ground nearby the damaged crown of Empress Eugénie, encrusted with 1,354 diamonds and 56 emeralds.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

A ninth object -- the diamond- and emerald encrusted crown of the Empress Eugenie -- was recovered nearby, where it was dropped by the thieves as they fled, the statement added.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• blacken 
• smear 
• smudge 
• sully