petrify

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛ.tɹəˌfaɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Verb

petrified tree Kirstenbosch Cape Town

petrify (third-person singular simple present petrifies, present participle petrifying, simple past and past participle petrified)

1. (transitive) To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.
   • 1799, Richard Kirwan, Geological Essays:

     a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves

2. To produce rigidity akin to stone.
3. To immobilize with fright.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frighten

4. (intransitive) To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
5. (intransitive, figurative) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
   • 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis:

     Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Result”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 233:

     Hopes, feelings, and passion, petrify one after another; the crust of experience soon hardens over the hidden past; and who, looking on the levelled and subdued exterior, could dream of the wreck and ravage that lies below?

6. (transitive, figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.
   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:

     petrify a genius to a dunce

   • 1874, George Eliot, letter to Mrs. Ponsonby:

     A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.

Related terms

• petrifaction

Translations

to harden organic matter

• Asturian: petrificar
• Bulgarian: вкаменявам (bg) (vkamenjavam)
• Catalan: petrificar (ca)
• Danish: forstene
• Dutch: verstenen (nl)
• Finnish: kivettää
• French: pétrifier (fr)
• Galician: petrificar (gl)
• German: versteinern (de)
• Greek: απολιθώνω (el) (apolithóno)

  Ancient: πωρόω (pōróō)

• Italian: pietrificare (it)
• Japanese: 石化する (ja) (sekika suru)
• Portuguese: petrificar (pt)
• Romanian: petrifica (ro)
• Russian: превраща́ть в ка́мень impf (prevraščátʹ v kámenʹ)
• Spanish: petrificar (es)
• Swedish: förstena (sv)

to produce rigidity akin to stone

• Bulgarian: вкаменявам (bg) (vkamenjavam)
• Catalan: petrificar (ca)
• Danish: forstene
• Dutch: verstenen (nl)
• Finnish: kovettaa (fi)
• French: pétrifier (fr)
• German: versteinern (de)
• Greek: απολιθώνω (el) (apolithóno)

  Ancient: πωρόω (pōróō)

• Hindi: पथराना (hi) (pathrānā)
• Portuguese: petrificar (pt)
• Romanian: petrifica (ro)
• Swedish: förstena (sv)

to immobilize with fright

• Bulgarian: вцепенявам (bg) (vcepenjavam)
• Catalan: petrificar (ca)
• Danish: forstene
• Dutch: verstenen (nl), verstarren (nl)
• Finnish: kivettää, jähmettää (fi)
• French: pétrifier (fr)
• Galician: petrificar (gl)
• German: erstarren (de)
• Polish: drętwieć (pl) impf, zdrętwieć pf, lodowacieć impf, zlodowacieć pf
• Portuguese: petrificar (pt)
• Romanian: petrifica (ro), împietri (ro)
• Spanish: petrificar (es)
• Swedish: förstena (sv)
• Tagalog: nanigas
• Ukrainian: ціпені́ти (cipeníty)

to become stone, or of a stony hardness

• Bulgarian: вкаменявам се (vkamenjavam se)
• Finnish: kivettyä (fi)
• Hindi: पथराना (hi) (pathrānā)
• Latin: lapidesco
• Russian: камене́ть (ru) impf (kamenétʹ), окамене́ть (ru) pf (okamenétʹ)

to become stony, callous, or obdurate

• Bulgarian: вкаменявам се (vkamenjavam se)
• Finnish: kovettua (fi)
• Russian: камене́ть (ru) impf (kamenétʹ), окамене́ть (ru) pf (okamenétʹ)

to make callous or obdurate; to transform as by petrification

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 使发呆

• Finnish: jähmettää (fi), kovettaa (fi)

See also

• calcify
• mineralize
• ossify
• permineralize