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Definition of Petrify
1. Verb. Cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned. "Fear petrified her thinking"
2. Verb. Change into stone. "The wood petrified with time"
Generic synonyms: Fossilise, Fossilize
Derivative terms: Petrifaction, Petrifaction, Petrification
3. Verb. Make rigid and set into a conventional pattern. "Slogans petrify our thinking"
Generic synonyms: Stiffen
Derivative terms: Ossification, Ossification, Rigidity, Rigidity
Definition of Petrify
1. v. t. To convert, as any animal or vegetable matter, into stone or stony substance.
2. v. i. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
Definition of Petrify
1. to convert into stone or a stony substance [v -FIED, -FYING, -FIES]
Medical Definition of Petrify
1. 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." "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) Origin: L. Petra rock, Gr. (akin to a stone) + -fy: cf. F. Petrifier. Cf. Parrot, Petrel, Pier. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Petrify
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