[syn: rigidify, ossify, petrify]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Petrify \Pet"ri*fy\ (p[e^]t"r[i^]*f[imac]), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
Petrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Petrifying.] [L. petra rock,
Gr. pe`tra (akin to pe`tros a stone) + -fy: cf. F.
p['e]trifier. Cf. Parrot, Petrel, Pier.]
1. To convert, as any animal or vegetable matter, into stone
or stony substance; as, petrified wood.
[1913 Webster]
A river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves.
--Kirwan.
[1913 Webster]
2. To make callous or obdurate; to transform, as by
petrifaction; as, to petrify the heart. Young. "Petrifying
accuracy." --Sir W. Scott.
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And petrify a genius to a dunce. --Pope.
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A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to
petrify your volition. --G. Eliot.
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3. To paralyze, especially with fear; to stupefy; as, she was
petrified by the sight of the bear in her tent.
[PJC]
The poor, petrified journeyman, quite unconscious of
what he was doing. --De Quincey.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Petrify \Pet"ri*fy\, v. i.
1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter
by calcareous deposits.
[1913 Webster]
2. Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
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Like Niobe we marble grow,
And petrify with grief. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
petrify
v 1: cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned;
"The horror petrified his feelings"; "Fear petrified her
thinking"
2: change into stone; "the wood petrified with time" [syn:
lapidify, petrify]
3: make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify the
training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods"; "slogans
petrify our thinking" [syn: rigidify, ossify, petrify]