PETRIFY

petrify

(verb) cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned from fright; “The horror petrified his feelings”; “Fear petrified her thinking”

rigidify, ossify, petrify

(verb) make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; “rigidify the training schedule”; “ossified teaching methods”; “slogans petrify our thinking”

lapidify, petrify

(verb) change into stone; “the wood petrified with time”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

petrify (third-person singular simple present petrifies, present participle petrifying, simple past and past participle petrified)

To harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.

To produce rigidity akin to stone.

To immobilize with fright.

(intransitive) To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.

(intransitive, figurative) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.

(transitive, figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.

Synonyms

• See also frighten

Source: Wiktionary

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Pet"ri*fy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Petrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Petrifying.] Etym: [L. petra rock, Gr. -fy: cf. F. pétrifier. Cf. Parrot, Petrel, Pier.]

1. To convert, as any animal or vegetable matter, into stone or stony substance. A river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves. Kirwan.

2. To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrifaction; as, to petrify the heart. Young. "Petrifying accuracy." Sir W. Scott. And petrify a genius to a dunce. Pope. The poor, petrified journeyman, quite unconscious of what he was doing. De Quincey. A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition. G. Eliot.

Pet"ri*fy, v. i.

1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.

2. Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate. Like Niobe we marble grow, And petrify with grief. Dryden.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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