Category:Petrify

Pet"ri*fy, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Petrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Petrifying.] Etym: [l. petra rock, gr. -fy: cf. F. pétrifier. 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.

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.