The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vitrify \Vit"ri*fy\, v. t. To become glass; to be converted into glass.
Chymists make vessels of animal substances, calcined,
which will not vitrify in the fire.
--Arbuthnot.
Vitrify \Vit"ri*fy\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Vitrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Vitrifying.] [F. vitrifier; L. vitrum glass + -ficare to make. See Vitreous, -fy.] To convert into, or cause to resemble, glass or a glassy substance, by heat and fusion.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, from Middle French vitrifier (16c.), from Latin vitrum "glass" (see vitreous) + -ficare, from facere "to make, do" (see factitious). Related: Vitrified; vitrification.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) To convert into, or cause to resemble, glass or a glassy substance, by heat and fusion. 2 (context intransitive English) To be converted into glass, especially through heat.
WordNet
v. change into glass or a glass-like substance by applying heat
undergo vitrification; become glassy or glass-like
[also: vitrified]
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "vitrify".
They would not doubtless have the advantages of the wicks which are impregnated with boracic acid, and which vitrify as they burn and are entirely consumed, but Cyrus Harding having manufactured a beautiful pair of snuffers, these candles would be greatly appreciated during the long evenings in Granite House.
By that time, the gang working on top had uncovered a vitrified slab over the hundred-foot circle of the vertical shaft and were cracking it with explosives.
Conn took a jeep up to observe progress there, he found the vitrified rock blown completely off the vertical shaft, exposing the rubble that had been dumped into it.
They emerged into outside light, in vast caves a mile high and open onto the crater, and looked across the floor that had been leveled and vitrified to the other side, three and a half miles away.
The lifter, and the floor under it, rose, with a thick mass of vitrified rock underneath.
After a few days of difficult work excavating Klikiss structures built into the vitrified granite walls, Jan had done some negotiating and landed himself the enviable position of colony communications officer.
Margaret had wondered if the placement was some sort of message laid down by the Klikiss, or an integrated circuit patterned along the granite walls, but analysis showed that the crystals had grown long after the devastating attack vitrified the stone.
The old sealant was vitrified but the assembly went in with surprising ease.
She wore the same smiling expectant and inviting expression that Thyra had shown him and which he had seen upon the face of the dark Welsh girl who had named herself Nikky to him before they were truly wedded in the enclosure of the vitrified fort in Britain.
Left the vitrified white surface layer intact, like the blade of a knife.
His shaft furnace was just a tube of wattle and daub, vitrified by repeated firings.
The remains of cities are to be found there which must be most extensive and they are burnt out and vitrified in part, full of fused stones and craters caused by fires which were hot enough to liquefy any rock or metal.
There are fused areas in South America, and also in North America from where the ancestors of the Incas may have fled, which remind us strongly of the vitrified areas created by modern nuclear tests.
On the third go-round the crowd turned brave, abandoned the vitrified cake, and filled their empty glasses with Scotch.
For this one, the designers had some sandstone rubble shipped in and they vitrified it.