WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Pet"ri*fy
Part of Speech : v.
Etymology : [L. petra rock, Gr. -fy: cf. F. p?trifier. Cf. Parrot, Petrel, Pier.]
Definition : 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.

t. [imp. & p. p. Petrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Petrifying.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Pet"ri*fy
Part of Speech : v.
Definition : 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.

i.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913