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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)