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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. Verb. To harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals. ¹
2. Verb. To produce rigidness akin to stone. ¹
3. Verb. To immobilize with fright. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
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
Literary usage of Petrify
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. The Chemistry of Common Life by James Finlay Weir Johnston (1859)
"Why calcareous waters encrust their channels, petrify, and deposit sediments in
boilers.—Impurity of spring waters in large towns, about farmhouses, ..."
2. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language ...by John Walker by John Walker (1806)
"(sog) To petrify, pèt'trè'fi. va (l83) Having the power to change to stone.
To petrify, pét'tré-fí. vn To change to stone. To become stone. ..."
3. Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary by Celia Fiennes (1888)
"... a paile or Stake into the ground there in seven yeares its petrify'd into
stone, from thence to ..."
4. Diary of a Journey to England in the Years 1761-1762, by Count Frederick by Friedrich Kielmansegge (1902)
"... however, that this is caused by mineral exhalations from the water rising out
of the soil, which settle on the wall and petrify it. ..."
5. An Etymological Dictionary of the Latin Language by Francis Edward Jackson Valpy (1828)
"V is commonly inserted, which is allied to B, PH, and P. io, I petrify. That is,
I make into a (lapis) stone. Lappa, a bur, a kind of thistle. For labba fr. ..."
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