Petrify

//ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals. transitive

    "a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves"

  2. 2
    cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned from fright wordnet
  3. 3
    To produce rigidity akin to stone.
  4. 4
    make rigid and set into a conventional pattern wordnet
  5. 5
    To immobilize with fright.
Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    change into stone wordnet
  2. 7
    To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits. intransitive
  3. 8
    To become stony, callous, or obdurate. figuratively, intransitive

    "Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief."

  4. 9
    To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification. figuratively, transitive

    "petrify a genius to a dunce"

Synonyms

All synonyms
fossilizelapidifyparalyzeaffrightalarmalarm

Example

More examples

"a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves"

Etymology

From Middle French pétrifier, from Medieval Latin petrificāre, from Latin petra (“rock”), from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”) + -ficāre, from facere (“do, make”), equivalent to petro- + -ify.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.