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. pétrifier. 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.

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.

The poor, petrified journeyman, quite unconscious of what he was doing.

A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.

Pet"ri*fy, v. i. 1. To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.

2. Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate.

Like Niobe we marble grow,
And petrify with grief.

• to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals
  
• to produce rigidness akin to stone
  
• to immobilize with fright