ossify

1. (ambitransitive) To transform (or cause to transform) from a softer animal substance into bone; particularly the processes of growth in humans and animals.Examples: "[…], nor do all bones of the same skeleton ossify during the samе period of time."Antonyms: deossifyambitransitive

2. (ambitransitive, animate) To become (or cause to become) inflexible and rigid in habits or opinions.Examples: "Before long, the entire organization ossifies."; "Possession of absolute knowledge would ossify the human spirit, quenching human creativity;"Synonyms: hardenambitransitiveanimate

3. (ambitransitive, inanimate) To grow (or cause to grow) formulaic and permanent.Examples: "This accidental repartition gets repeated, develops advantages of its own, and gradually ossifies into a systematic division of labour."; "Now, in turn, we apply a revolutionary critique that […] ossifies into a rhetoric to become "the monstrous Latin of a monstrous church.""; "[T]he charge threatens to ossify into conventional wisdom before the movie's audience can get to theaters to see how misguided it is."ambitransitiveinanimate

4. (rare) To calcify.Examples: "The cartilages become brittle, and in many instances are ossified; the ligaments are rendered harder, but are less capable of resisting extension."rare