encrust
Americanverb (used with object)
-
encrusts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
encrusted,
past participle, past
-
encrusting
present participle
-
to cover or line with a crust or hard coating.
-
to form into a crust.
-
to deposit as a crust.
verb (used without object)
-
encrusts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
encrusted,
past participle, past
-
encrusting
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to cover or overlay with or as with a crust or hard coating
-
to form or cause to form a crust or hard coating
-
(tr) to decorate lavishly, as with jewels
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
encrustsimple
-
encrustssimple
-
have encrustedperfect
-
has encrustedperfect
-
am encrustingprogressive
-
are encrustingprogressive
-
is encrustingprogressive
-
have been encrustingperfect progressive
-
has been encrustingperfect progressive
Past
-
encrustedsimple
-
had encrustedperfect
-
was encrustingprogressive
-
were encrustingprogressive
-
had been encrustingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of encrust
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”; see origin at en- 1, crust
Explanation
When you encrust something, you coat it with a layer of some other material. You might encrust your homemade cheesecake bites in crushed cookie crumbs, for example. There are many ways to encrust various kinds of food, as when you encrust fish or chicken in breadcrumbs before baking it. A jeweler might encrust a ring in tiny diamonds, and the ocean's tide can encrust a dock with tiny snails or barnacles. The Latin root of encrust is incrustare, which, fittingly, means "to cover with crust."
Vocabulary lists containing encrust
"Be Prepared" by Vera Brosgol
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Pictures of Hollis Wood
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
McCrady’s, Langhorne recalls, might prepare a local fish but encrust it with lichens that he foraged.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 11, 2023
Guests complain about their servants, encrust their manicures and teeth with diamonds and feed each other gold-flaked chocolate truffles.
From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2022
The nodules form on deep abyssal plains where sedimentation rates are low, allowing metal compounds dissolved in seawater to encrust a nucleus, like a shark tooth or a rock, over millions of years.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 14, 2019
With time, corals, sponges and other marine life encrust the concrete, and it becomes indistinguishable from the natural reefs.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2016
This alkaline urine deposits its phosphates, which light upon the calculus and encrust it with a mortary shell, which may go on increasing in size until it may even fill the bladder.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 1 "Bisharin" to "Bohea" by Various
A black sponge that encrusts tidal pool rocks in southern Japan, Halichondria okadai, produced a drug, now marketed as Halaven, to treat late-stage breast cancer.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 27, 2022
Moss encrusts the walls, rainwater drips down rusted steel beams, flimsy lights glow yellow in dark interiors.
From New York Times ● Dec. 13, 2014
Unlike the atmospheric junk, which simply encrusts the surface, mercury seeps into microscopic flaws in the cylinders’ surfaces created by the polishing process.
From Economist ● Jan. 10, 2013
The water being highly charged with limestone in a state of impervious powder, rapidly encrusts the object until it appears to be made of solid rock, and various specimens of this result may be obtained.
From What to See in England A Guide to Places of Historic Interest, Natural Beauty or Literary Association by Gordon Home
Then, selecting the grains one by one, it encrusts them all around itself in the fabric of the bag and cements them with the fluid from its spinnerets, which hardens at once.
From More Hunting Wasps by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos
Burns says that was all part of figuring out “how to loosen the barnacles of sentimentality that have encrusted themselves” on the war.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2025
The wind reached 100 miles an hour, the waves rose to 50 feet, and the ice that encrusted the deck must have weighed tons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025
If Los Angeles has a reputation for opera, it is as an outlier, a city freed from encrusted tradition and eager to invent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2024
Chappell also joined the fun, wearing a one-piece bodysuit encrusted with pearls and seashells.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2024
It was not pure white, but rather a grayish offset, and its wide skirts and bodice were encrusted with thousands of minuscule crystals that reminded Celaena of the surface of the sea.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
“The You You Are” is self-help hackery rife with fool’s gold like, “A society with festering workers cannot flourish, just as a man with rotting toes cannot skip” encrusting bumper sticker calls for rebellion.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2025
The mussels can compromise water delivery systems by encrusting screens and filters, attaching to the walls of large pipelines, and clogging smaller pipes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2024
During the trial, it was heard security guard Hettiarachchi had spotted Mr Odunlami wearing a fake Patek Philippe Nautilus watch with diamond encrusting which, if real, would be worth about £125,000.
From BBC ● Feb. 12, 2024
It sure didn’t look like there were diamonds encrusting her shoes.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 2022
After this escape, I was content to take a foggy view of the Inn through the window’s encrusting dirt, and to stand dolefully looking out, saying to myself that London was decidedly overrated.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
