a. [f. L. vitr-um glass + -ESCENT. Cf. It. vitrescente.] Tending to become glass; susceptible of being turned into glass; glassy.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 48. They seem to be formed chiefly of the vitrescent fluor, debased by a less agitated or divided clay.
1767. Phil. Trans., LVII. 440. The stone is of an extreme hardness, and almost a petrifaction … of many different stones, but all vitrescent.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 262. The nitre and tartar are … rendered still more vitrescent by the borax.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 756. Iron ores … require calcareous additions, and the copper ores, rather slags or vitrescent stones, than calcareous earth.
1855. trans. Labarte’s Arts Mid. Ages, viii. 289. A vitrescent coating.
