Adjacent Words

Ossify definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OS'SIFY, v.t. [L. os, bone, anf facio, to form.]
To form bone; to change from a soft animal substance into bone, or convert into a substance of the hardness of bones. This is done by the deposition of calcarious phosphate or carbonate on the part.
OS'SIFY, v.i. To become bone; to change from soft matter into a substance of bony hardness.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: become bony; "The tissue ossified"
2: make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify the training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods"; "slogans petrify our thinking" [syn: rigidify, ossify, petrify]
3: cause to become hard and bony; "The disease ossified the tissue"

Merriam Webster's

verb (-fied; -fying) Etymology: Latin oss-, os + English -ify Date: 1713 intransitive verb 1. to change into bone 2. to become hardened or conventional and opposed to change transitive verb 1. to change (as cartilage) into bone 2. to make rigidly conventional and opposed to change

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. & intr. (-ies, -ied) 1 turn into bone; harden. 2 make or become rigid, callous, or unprogressive. Derivatives: ossific adj. ossification n. Etymology: F ossifier f. L os ossis bone

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ossify Os"si*fy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ossified; p. pr. & vb. n. Ossifying.] [L. os, ossis, bone + -fy: cf. F. ossifier. See Osseous.] 1. (Physiol.) To form into bone; to change from a soft animal substance into bone, as by the deposition of lime salts. 2. Fig.: To harden; as, to ossify the heart. --Ruskin.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Ossify Os"si*fy, v. i. (Physiol.) To become bone; to change from a soft tissue to a hard bony tissue.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(ossifies, ossifying, ossified) If an idea, system, or organization ossifies or if something ossifies it, it becomes fixed and difficult to change. (FORMAL) It reckons that rationing would ossify the farm industry... British society tended to ossify and close ranks as the 1930s drew to their close. = fossilize VERB: V n, V [disapproval]

Moby Thesaurus

anneal, brutalize, calcify, callous, case harden, cornify, firm, fossilize, harden, indurate, inure, lapidify, lithify, petrify, steel, temper, toughen, vitrify