encrust

American  

[en-kruhst] / ɛnˈkrʌst /

Also incrust

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 British  

/ 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
• encrustation noun
• nonencrusting adjective

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”; en- ¹, crust

Example Sentences

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

The house of Breck was a mansion of tolerable antiquity as mansions went in the islands, and several curious stories had already had time to encrust it, like lichen on an aged wall.

From The Spy in Black by Clouston, J. Storer (Joseph Storer)

Related Words

• blacken
• smear
• smudge
• sully