Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Petrify"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

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.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Petrify \Pet"ri*fy\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Petrified}; p. pr. &
vb. n. {Petrifying}.] [L. petra rock, Gr. ? (akin to ? a
stone) + -fy: cf. F. p['e]trifier. 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.

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

petrify
v 1: cause to become stone-like or stiff; "The horror petrified
his feelings"; "Fear petrified her thinking"
2: change into stone; "the wood petrified with time" [syn: {lapidify}]

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