petrify

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to make someone so frightened that they cannot move or think clearly

   The sudden crash seemed to petrify everyone in the dark hallway.

2. 2
   verb

   to turn organic matter into a stonelike substance through mineral replacement, or to become stone in this way

   Mineral-rich groundwater can petrify buried wood over a long period.

3. 3
   verb

   figurative: to make an idea, institution, or habit rigid and resistant to change

   A ban on criticism can petrify a living tradition into empty dogma.

Simplified etymology

Petrify originally meant “to turn into stone” and derives from Latin and Greek petra, “rock.” Its figurative sense “to terrify or astonish” arose in the mid-17th century.

From Middle French petrifier and Medieval Latin petrificare, 'make into stone,' built from Latin petra, 'rock,' from Greek petra, + facere, 'make.' The fear sense imagines terror making a person rigid like stone; the institutional sense extends the same image to ideas and customs.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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