To cause or undergo dezincification; to lose zinc from a brass or copper-zinc alloy through corrosion, making it weak and brittle.
From dezinc + -ify (Latin suffix meaning 'to make'). This verb appeared in metallurgical literature in the 19th century.
Dezincify sounds like a sci-fi word but it's just describing how water slowly steals zinc atoms—this is why old brass plumbing is often replaced before it catastrophically fails!
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