'Petrify' definitions:

Definition of 'petrify'

(from WordNet)
verb
Cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned; "The horror petrified his feelings"; "Fear petrified her thinking"
verb
Change into stone; "the wood petrified with time" [syn: lapidify, petrify]
verb
Make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify the training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods"; "slogans petrify our thinking" [syn: rigidify, ossify, petrify]

Definition of 'Petrify'

From: GCIDE
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • And petrify a genius to a dunce. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
  • A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition. --G. Eliot. [1913 Webster]
  • 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]

Definition of 'Petrify'

From: GCIDE
  • 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. [1913 Webster]
  • Like Niobe we marble grow, And petrify with grief. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'petrify'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Petrify'