Associations to the word «Petrify»

Wiktionary

PETRIFY, verb. To harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.
PETRIFY, verb. To produce rigidity akin to stone.
PETRIFY, verb. To immobilize with fright.
PETRIFY, verb. (intransitive) To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
PETRIFY, verb. (intransitive) (figurative) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
PETRIFY, verb. (transitive) (figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.

Dictionary definition

PETRIFY, verb. Cause to become stonelike or stiff or dazed and stunned; "The horror petrified his feelings"; "Fear petrified her thinking".
PETRIFY, verb. Change into stone; "the wood petrified with time".
PETRIFY, verb. Make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify the training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods"; "slogans petrify our thinking".

Wise words

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings - words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.
Stephen King