ppl. a. [f. VITRIFY v.]
1. Converted into glass or a glassy substance by exposure to heat; rendered glassy; glazed.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. i. 53. Vitrified and pellucide bodyes are of a clearer complexion in their continuities, then in their powders and Atomicall divisions.
1690. T. Burnet, Theory Earth, II. 49. The sun … would … convert it at length either into an heap of ashes, or a lump of vitrified metal.
1777. J. Williams, Acc. Anc. Ruins, 15. It was all one heap of vitrified ruins from top to bottom.
a. 1787. G. White, Selborne, iv. The sand … fluxes and runs by the intense heat, and so cases over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat like glass.
a. 1817. T. Dwight, Trav. New Eng., etc. (1821), II. 80. At a little distance from the pit there was a large pile of calcined and vitrified ore.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 349. Glazed or vitrified pipes should only be used in or under buildings.
1869. J. Phillips, Vesuv., ii. 37. That foul vitrified matter called lava.
b. fig. Icy, frozen.
c. 1779. Crabbe, Midnight, 216. The winds that in converging Furrows plough The freezing pool … Are arm’d with pain, and vitrified their Wings.
2. Vitrified fort, a hill-fort of a type occurring in Scotland and some parts of the Continent, the stones of which have been converted into a vitreous material by the action of fire.
1777. J. Williams, Acc. Anc. Ruins, 25. The largest vitrified fort I ever saw, is on the south side the Grampians, in the shire of Angus.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 115. Upon the top of an insulated bill adjoining, there appears to have been what some would call a vitrified fort; though others will have it to be the vestiges of a volcano.
1825. Hibbert, in Trans. Soc. Antiq. Scot. (1831), IV. 180. The name of vitrified fort may with much advantage be exchanged for the more comprehensive and untheoretical one of vitrified site.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann., II. III. iii. 413. One of the most remarkable specimens of a vitrified fort in Scotland.
1879. Lubbock, Addr. Pol. & Educ., ix. 173. The vitrified fort on the Hill of Noath.
