Adjacent Words

Petrify definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PET'RIFY, v.t. [L. petra; Gr. a stone or rock, and facio, to make.]
1. To convert to stone or stony substance; as an animal or vegetable substance.
North of Quito,there is a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves.
2. To make callous or obdurate; as, to petrify the heart.
And petrify a genius to a dunce.
3. To fix; as, to petrify one with astonishment.
PET'RIFY, v.i. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as animal or vegetable substances by means of calcarious or other depositions in their cavities.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

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]

Merriam Webster's

verb (-fied; -fying) Etymology: Middle French petrifier, from petr- + -ifier -ify Date: 1594 transitive verb 1. to convert (organic matter) into stone or a substance of stony hardness by the infiltration of water and the deposition of dissolved mineral matter 2. to make rigid or inert like stone: a. to make lifeless or inactive ; deaden <slogans are apt to petrify a man's thinking — Saturday Review> b. to confound with fear, amazement, or awe <a novel about an airline pilot that will petrify you — Martin Levin> intransitive verb to become stone or of stony hardness or rigidity

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. (-ies, -ied) 1 tr. paralyse with fear, astonishment, etc. 2 tr. change (organic matter) into a stony substance. 3 intr. become like stone. 4 tr. deprive (the mind, a doctrine, etc.) of vitality; deaden. Etymology: F pétrifier f. med.L petrificare f. L petra rock f. Gk

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Petrify Pet"ri*fy, v. i. 1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits. 2. Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate. Like Niobe we marble grow, And petrify with grief. --Dryden.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Petrify Pet"ri*fy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Petrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Petrifying.] [L. petra rock, Gr. ? (akin to ? 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. 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.'' --Sir W. Scott. 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(petrifies, petrifying, petrified) If something petrifies you, it makes you feel very frightened. Prison petrifies me and I don't want to go there. = terrify VERB: V n • petrifying I found the climb absolutely petrifying. = terrifying ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Change to stone, convert to stone. 2. Make callous, make obdurate. 3. Astonish, amaze, astound, dumfound, confound, stupefy, take by surprise, strike dumb, stun.

Moby Thesaurus

alarm, amaze, anneal, appall, astonish, astound, awe, awestrike, bedaze, bedazzle, bemuse, benumb, bewilder, boggle, bowl down, bowl over, calcify, callous, case harden, confound, cornify, crystallize, daze, dazzle, disconcert, dismay, dumbfound, dumbfounder, firm, flabbergast, fossilize, freeze, frighten, harden, horrify, indurate, lapidify, lithify, numb, ossify, overwhelm, paralyze, perplex, scare, scare stiff, scare to death, shock, stagger, startle, steel, strike dead, strike dumb, strike terror into, strike with wonder, stun, stupefy, surprise, temper, terrify, toughen, turn to stone, vitrify