| petrify | 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." "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) Origin: L. Petra rock, Gr. (akin to a stone) + -fy: cf. F. Petrifier. Cf. Parrot, Petrel, Pier. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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