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.
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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.
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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.
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2. Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
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Like Niobe we marble grow,
And petrify with grief. --Dryden.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
petrify
v 1: cause to become stone-like 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]
3: make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify
the training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods";
"slogans petrify our thinking" [syn: rigidify, ossify]
[also: petrified]
WordNet (r) 2.0
62 Moby Thesaurus words for "petrify":
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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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