decrepitate

Verb

decrepitate (third-person singular simple present decrepitates, present participle decrepitating, simple past and past participle decrepitated)

1. (transitive) To 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. (intransitive) Of 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
   • 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