Obs. [f. LAPIDESCENT a.: see -ENCE.] Lapidescent condition; petrifaction. So † Lapidescency, in quot. quasi-concr., a result of petrifaction.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxiii. 167. Those fragments and pieces of Lapis Ceratites, commonly termed Cornu fossile … are but the Lapidescencies and petrifactive mutations of hard bodies.
1650. Charleton, Paradoxes, Prol. 23. A … laborious exploration of the Causes of Coagulation, conductive to Lapidescence or Petrifaction.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 125. Some proportion of water is always necessary to promote this lapidescence.
