To heat a substance so that it crackles, or until its crackling stops.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- decrepitate salts
- decrepitate a mineral sample
- decrepitate under heat
On the page
The alchemist decrepitated the salt in a shallow dish before sealing the vessel.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- decrepitate
- Past tense
- decrepitated
- Past participle
- decrepitated
- Present participle
- decrepitating
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- decrepitate
- Present continuous
- am/is/are decrepitating
- Present perfect
- have/has decrepitated
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been decrepitating
- Past
- decrepitated
- Past continuous
- was/were decrepitating
- Past perfect
- had decrepitated
- Past perfect continuous
- had been decrepitating
- Future
- will decrepitate
- Future continuous
- will be decrepitating
- Future perfect
- will have decrepitated
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been decrepitating
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror / gothic literary. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: decrepitate; decrepitates; decrepitated; decrepitated; decrepitating Commonness: rare (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Roast/calcine substance such as salt to cause crackling or until it stops; intransitive become decrepitated. Forms decrepitated, decrepitating, decrepitates. Not generic decay. Individual writer usefulness checked for a distinct physical, ritual, facial or acoustic function. Definitions/examples are original; genre suitability is not an inherent emotional rating. Writing functions: precise physical or ritual description, gothic scene construction. Third-person singular: decrepitates.
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