GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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1.       
   Encystment , n.
   (Biol.) A process which, among some of the lower forms of life, precedes reproduction by budding, fission, spore formation, etc.
   1913 Webster
   ☞ The animal (a) first contracts its body to a globular mass (b) and then secretes a transparent cyst (c), after which the mass divides into two or more parts (as in d e), each of which attains freedom by the bursting of the cyst, and becomes an individual animal.
   1913 Webster
   (Zoöl.) A process by which many internal parasites, esp. in their larval states, become inclosed within a cyst in the muscles, liver, etc. See Trichina.
   1913 Webster