petrify
petrify is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 3 senses, and appears in Roget's Thesaurus (1911) with 40 related terms. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.
Definitions
- 1.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.
- 2.To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
- 3.Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate. Like Niobe we marble grow, And petrify with grief. Dryden.
Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
Synonyms
Related terms (Roget's 1911)
- adamant
- adamantean
- adamantine
- air
- amianth
- amianthus
- annihilator
- asbestos
- attic
- benumb
- bite
- block
- board
- bone
- bony
- box
- brick
- brigade
- buckram
- burn
- calculous
- callosity
- cartilage
- cartilaginous
- cast
- cement
- central
- chatter
- chill
- concrete
- congeal
- congelation
- conglaciation
- cool
- cooling
- corneous
- crag
- crystal
- crystallization
- cut
Source: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
Related questions
Reverse-dictionary questions
Definition-first questions whose answer is petrify.
Sources
- Definitions: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
- Synonyms: Roget's Thesaurus, 1911 edition (public domain, via Project Gutenberg eBook #10681).
- Canonical URL: https://worddirectanswers.com/word/petrify
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