petrify
Pronunciation
  • (America) IPA: /ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/
Verb

petrify (petrifies, present participle petrifying; past and past participle petrified)

  1. 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. (intransitive) To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
  5. (intransitive, figurative) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
    • Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.
  6. (transitive, figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.
    • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify )”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. In Three Books, Dublin; London: Reprinted for A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756 ↗:
    • A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Russian: камене́ть
Translations
  • Russian: камене́ть



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