Search Result for "petrify": 
Wordnet 3.0

VERB (3)

1. cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned;
- Example: "The horror petrified his feelings"
- Example: "Fear petrified her thinking"

2. change into stone;
- Example: "the wood petrified with time"
[syn: lapidify, petrify]

3. make rigid and set into a conventional pattern;
- Example: "rigidify the training schedule"
- Example: "ossified teaching methods"
- Example: "slogans petrify our thinking"
[syn: rigidify, ossify, petrify]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Petrify \Pet"ri*fy\ (p[e^]t"r[i^]*f[imac]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Petrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Petrifying.] [L. petra rock, Gr. pe`tra (akin to pe`tros 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; as, petrified wood. [1913 Webster] A river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves. --Kirwan. [1913 Webster] 2. To make callous or obdurate; to transform, as by petrifaction; as, to petrify the heart. Young. "Petrifying accuracy." --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster] And petrify a genius to a dunce. --Pope. [1913 Webster] A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition. --G. Eliot. [1913 Webster] 3. To paralyze, especially with fear; to stupefy; as, she was petrified by the sight of the bear in her tent. [PJC] The poor, petrified journeyman, quite unconscious of what he was doing. --De Quincey. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Petrify \Pet"ri*fy\, v. i. 1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits. [1913 Webster] 2. Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate. [1913 Webster] Like Niobe we marble grow, And petrify with grief. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

petrify v 1: cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned; "The horror petrified his feelings"; "Fear petrified her thinking" 2: change into stone; "the wood petrified with time" [syn: lapidify, petrify] 3: make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify the training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods"; "slogans petrify our thinking" [syn: rigidify, ossify, petrify]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

62 Moby Thesaurus words for "petrify": alarm, amaze, anneal, appall, astonish, astound, awe, awestrike, bedaze, bedazzle, bemuse, benumb, bewilder, boggle, bowl down, bowl over, calcify, callous, case harden, confound, cornify, crystallize, daze, dazzle, disconcert, dismay, dumbfound, dumbfounder, firm, flabbergast, fossilize, freeze, frighten, harden, horrify, indurate, lapidify, lithify, numb, ossify, overwhelm, paralyze, perplex, scare, scare stiff, scare to death, shock, stagger, startle, steel, strike dead, strike dumb, strike terror into, strike with wonder, stun, stupefy, surprise, temper, terrify, toughen, turn to stone, vitrify