— martensitic /mahr'tn zit"ik/ , adj.
/mahr"tn zuyt'/ , n. Metall.
a metastable microconstituent of any of various forms of carbon steel, produced by undercooling sufficiently below the normal transformation temperature, esp. a hard, brittle product of the decomposition of austenite, produced in this way.
[ 1895-1900; named after Adolf Martens (d. 1914), German metallurgist; see -ITE 1 ]