petrify

1. (transitive) To turn to stone: to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.Examples: "a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves"transitive

2. (intransitive) To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.intransitive

3. (intransitive, figurative) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.Examples: "Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief."; "Hopes, feelings, and passion, petrify one after another; the crust of experience soon hardens over the hidden past; and who, looking on the levelled and subdued exterior, could dream of the wreck and ravage that lies below?"figurativelyintransitive

4. (transitive, figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.Examples: "petrify a genius to a dunce"; "A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition."figurativelytransitive