1. a hard coating or layer that forms on a surface
2. the process of forming such a coating or crust

Examples

• The old pipes had a thick encrustation of mineral deposits.
• Salt encrustation covered the rocks near the shore.
• The archaeologist carefully removed the encrustation from the ancient artifact.
• Years of neglect led to an encrustation of rust on the metal surface.
• The cave walls showed beautiful encrustations of crystalline formations.
• Barnacle encrustation made the ship’s hull rough and inefficient.
• The encrustation process took several months to complete.