Hypertext Webster Gateway: "petrified"
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)
petrified
adj 1: converted into stone
2: converted into a mineral; "petrified wood" [syn: {mineralized}]
3: so frightened as to be unable to move; stunned or paralyzed
with terror; "petrified with fear"; "she was petrified by
the eerie sound"; "too numb with fear to move" [syn: {numb}]
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