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Petrify

//ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ// verb

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"

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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