Pet"ri*fy (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Petrified (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Petrifying (?).] [L. petra rock, Gr. &?; (akin to &?; a stone) + -fy:
cf. F. pÈtrifier. Cf. Parrot, Petrel, Pier.] 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.
Pet"ri*fy, v. i. 1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic
matter by calcareous deposits.