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Webster 1913 Edition

Petrify

Pet′ri-fy

(pĕt′rĭ-fī)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Petrified
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Petrifying
.]
[L.
petra
rock, Gr.
πέτρα
(akin to
πέτροσ
a stone) +
-fy
: cf. F.
pétrifier
. Cf.
Parrot
,
Petrel
,
Pier
.]
1.
To convert, as any animal or vegetable matter, into stone or stony substance;
as,
petrified
wood
.
A river that
petrifies
any sort of wood or leaves.
Kirwan.
2.
To make callous or obdurate; to transform, as by petrifaction;
as, to
petrify
the heart
. Young.
“Petrifying accuracy.”
Sir W. Scott.
And
petrify
a genius to a dunce.
Pope.
A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to
petrify
your volition.
G. Eliot.
The poor,
petrified
journeyman, quite unconscious of what he was doing.
De Quincey.

Pet′ri-fy

,
Verb.
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.

Webster 1828 Edition

Petrify

PET'RIFY

,
Verb.
T.
[L. petra; Gr. a stone or rock, and facio, to make.]
1.
To convert to stone or stony substance; as an animal or vegetable substance.
North of Quito,there is a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves.
2.
To make callous or obdurate; as, to petrify the heart.
And petrify a genius to a dunce.
3.
To fix; as, to petrify one with astonishment.

PET'RIFY

,
Verb.
I.
To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as animal or vegetable substances by means of calcarious or other depositions in their cavities.

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