petrify

verb
/ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/US

Etymology

From Middle French pétrifier, from Medieval Latin petrificāre, from Latin petra (“rock”), from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + -ficāre, from facere (“do, make”), equivalent to petro- + -ify.

  1. derived from πέτρα
  2. derived from petra
  3. derived from petrificāre
  4. derived from pétrifier

Definitions

  1. To turn to stone

    To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.

    • a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves
  2. To produce rigidity akin to stone.

  3. To immobilize with fright.

  4. + 3 more definitions
    1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.

    2. To become stony, callous, or obdurate.

      • Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.
      • Hopes, feelings, and passion, petrify one after another; the crust of experience soon hardens over the hidden past; and who, looking on the levelled and subdued exterior, could dream of the wreck and ravage that lies below?
    3. To make callous or obdurate

      To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.

      • petrify a genius to a dunce
      • A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for petrify. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA