Verb: petrify 'pe-tru,fI
- Change into stone
"the wood petrified with time";
- lapidify
- Cause to become stonelike, stiff or dazed and stunned from fright
"The horror petrified his feelings"; "Fear petrified her thinking"
- Make rigid and set into a conventional pattern
"slogans petrify our thinking";
- rigidify, ossify
Derived forms: petrified, petrifies, petrifying
Type of: blunt, deaden, fossilise [Brit], fossilize, stiffen
Encyclopedia: Petrify