PETRIFY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Petrify

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

verb

Petrify v. t. (past & past part. petrified; pres. part. petrifying)

To convert, as any animal or vegetable matter, into stone or stony substance; as, petrified wood. "A river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves."

To make callous or obdurate; to transform, as by petrifaction; as, to petrify the heart. Young. "Petrifying accuracy." "And petrify a genius to a dunce." "A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition."

To paralyze, especially with fear; to stupefy; as, she was petrified by the sight of the bear in her tent. "The poor, petrified journeyman, quite unconscious of what he was doing."

See images of 'Petrify'

Etymology of 'Petrify'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Petrify" Quotes from Famous Books

... and she went from me! Insatiable love! ever self-torturer, never self-destroyer! the world, with all its weight of miseries, cannot crush thee, cannot keep thee down. Generally mens' tears, like the droppings of certain springs, only harden and petrify what they fall on; but mine sank deep into a tender heart, and were its very blood. Never will I believe she has left me utterly. Oftentimes, and long before her departure, I fancied we were in heaven together. I ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... burning on the hearth in the drawing-room of the second than of the first. Some people have the gift of hospitality; others whose intentions are just as kind and whose houses are perfection in luxury of appointments, seem to petrify every approach. Such people appearing at a picnic color the entire scene with the blue light of their austerity. Such people are usually not masters, but slaves, of etiquette. Their chief concern is whether this is correct, or whether that is properly done, or is this person or that ...

— Etiquette • Emily Post

... and the shock of the icy water seemed to petrify me. I should have gone straight to the bottom like a piece of lead but for the lasso. It tightened around my chest, and ...

— The Young Forester • Zane Grey

... never yet touched—never underwent that test. Her farmer or her footman I am not—no serf nor servant of hers have I ever been; but I am poor, and it behoves me to look to my self-respect—not to compromise an inch of it. What did she mean by that allusion to the cold people who petrify flesh to marble? It pleased me—I hardly know why; I would not permit myself to inquire. I never do indulge in scrutiny either of her language or countenance; for if I did, I should sometimes forget common sense ...

— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte

Words linked to "Petrify" : ossify, fossilise, fossilize, petrifaction, rigidify, petrification, deaden, blunt