\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.

\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.
                                               --Dryden.