Dictionary Definition

decrepitate

1 undergo decrepitation and crackle; "The salt decrepitated"

2 to roast or calcine so as to cause to crackle or until crackling stops; "decrepitate salts"

User Contributed Dictionary

From mediaeval Latin decrepitare, from de- + crepitare.

/dɪˈkɹɛpɪteɪt/

To roast (a salt or mineral) until it stops crackling in the fire.
- 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Folio 2007, p. 333:
  
  so will it come to pass in a pot of salt, although decrepitated; and so also in a pot of Snow.
Of slats and minerals, to crackle when heated, indicating a sudden breakdown of their particles.