encrypt \encrypt\ v. t. to convert ordinary language into code; to hide the meaning of a message by converting it into a form that cannot be interpreted without knowing the secret method for interpretation, called the key.
In 1985, the agency awarded about $6 million in contracts to 11 electronics companies to build snap-in computer cards about the size of an audio cassette that use the NSA's secret formulas to encrypt messages.
But when McCaw switches its network to digital, as it expects to do over the next several years, it will be able to encrypt and decode calls more easily and less expensively.