PET'RIFY, verb transitive [Latin petra; Gr. a stone or rock, and facio, to make.]

1. To convert to stone or stony substance; as an animal or vegetable substance.

North of Quito, there is a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves.

2. To make callous or obdurate; as, to petrify the heart.

And petrify a genius to a dunce.

3. To fix; as, to petrify one with astonishment.

PET'RIFY, verb intransitive To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as animal or vegetable substances by means of calcarious or other depositions in their cavities.