decrepitate

present singular third person decrepitates · participle present decrepitating · participle past decrepitated · past decrepitated

1. transitiveTo roast (a salt or mineral) until it stops crackling in the fire.

   so will it come to pass in a pot of salt, although decrepitated; and so also in a pot of Snow.

   1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Folio, published 2007, page 333

2. intransitiveOf salts and minerals, to crackle when heated, indicating a sudden breakdown of their particles.

   It is, however, remarkable, that the greater number of bodies which decrepitate, are really anhydrous and fixed, such as sulphate of potash, sulphate of barytes, chloride of sodium, &c.

   1837, Magazine of Popular Science, and Journal of the Useful Arts, page 77

   1 more example

   That substance was called salt, because, according to some authors, it is obtained by the action of the sun (sol) on sea-water, according to others, because it decrepitates in the fire (exsilire=to crackle and spring about).

   1907, M. M. Pattison Muir, A History of Chemical Theories and Laws, page 202