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petrifyingmore about petrifying

petrifying


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Petrify  \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.  p['e]trifier.  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. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  petrifying 
  adj  :  paralyzing  with  terror 




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