ENCRUST

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does encrust mean? 

• ENCRUST (verb)
  The verb ENCRUST has 3 senses:

1. cover or coat with a crust

2. decorate or cover lavishly (as with gems)

3. form a crust or a hard layer

  Familiarity information: ENCRUST used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENCRUST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they encrust    ... he / she / it encrusts   
Past simple: encrusted   
Past participle: encrusted   
-ing form: encrusting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover or coat with a crust

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

encrust; incrust

Hypernyms (to "encrust" is one way to...):

coat; surface (put a coat on; cover the surface of; furnish with a surface)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

encrustation (a hard outer layer that covers something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Decorate or cover lavishly (as with gems)

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

beset; encrust; incrust

Hypernyms (to "encrust" is one way to...):

adorn; beautify; decorate; embellish; grace; ornament (make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

encrustation (a decorative coating of contrasting material that is applied to a surface as an inlay or overlay)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Form a crust or a hard layer

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

encrust; incrust

Hypernyms (to "encrust" is one way to...):

harden; indurate (become hard or harder)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "encrust"):

effloresce (become encrusted with crystals due to evaporation)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

encrustation (a hard outer layer that covers something)

encrustation (the formation of a crust)

 Context examples 

The windows were encrusted with dust, and the shutters were up.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Their apprehensions arise from several changes they dread in the celestial bodies: for instance, that the earth, by the continual approaches of the sun towards it, must, in course of time, be absorbed, or swallowed up; that the face of the sun, will, by degrees, be encrusted with its own effluvia, and give no more light to the world; that the earth very narrowly escaped a brush from the tail of the last comet, which would have infallibly reduced it to ashes; and that the next, which they have calculated for one-and-thirty years hence, will probably destroy us.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The tomb in the day-time, and when wreathed with fresh flowers, had looked grim and gruesome enough; but now, some days afterwards, when the flowers hung lank and dead, their whites turning to rust and their greens to browns; when the spider and the beetle had resumed their accustomed dominance; when time-discoloured stone, and dust-encrusted mortar, and rusty, dank iron, and tarnished brass, and clouded silver-plating gave back the feeble glimmer of a candle, the effect was more miserable and sordid than could have been imagined.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)