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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
petrified
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He had the gun pointed at my head. I was absolutely petrified.
▪ He was petrified with fear as I held my knife in front of him.
▪ She's a very nervous dog, and she's petrified of traffic.
▪ She just stood there, petrified at the thought of the crowds waiting outside.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As I say, I was petrified!
▪ Firemen secured the bus with ropes to stop it tumbling over the edge before escorting the petrified passengers to safety.
▪ I used to be petrified of these dragons, even though I knew they probably didn't exist.
▪ It moved aside the earth and found the petrified wood that was the heart in the forest.
▪ Sitting in the rear, maybe it had felt worse, but I'd been petrified.
▪ Their L-shaped living rooms were graced by open fireplaces, with the latest shapes in petrified wood adorning the mantelpieces.
▪ There's no need to look like a petrified rabbit.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Petrified

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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
petrified

1660s, "turned to stone," past participle adjective from petrify (v.). Figurative meaning "paralyzed (with fright, etc.)" is from 1720.

Wiktionary
petrified
  1. Extremely afraid. v

  2. (en-past of: petrify)

WordNet
petrify
  1. v. cause to become stone-like or stiff or dazed and stunned; "The horror petrified his feelings"; "Fear petrified her thinking"

  2. change into stone; "the wood petrified with time" [syn: lapidify]

  3. make rigid and set into a conventional pattern; "rigidify the training schedule"; "ossified teaching methods"; "slogans petrify our thinking" [syn: rigidify, ossify]

  4. [also: petrified]

petrified
  1. adj. converted into stone

  2. converted into a mineral; "petrified wood" [syn: mineralized]

  3. so frightened as to be unable to move; stunned or paralyzed with terror; "petrified with fear"; "she was petrified by the eerie sound"; "too numb with fear to move" [syn: numb]

petrified

See petrify

Wikipedia
Petrified (disambiguation)

Petrified can mean the following:

  • Petrifaction, the process in which organic material becomes mineralized and preserved as a pretrified fossil, such as Petrified wood
  • Petrifaction in mythology and fiction
  • "Petrified", a song by Fort Minor from The Rising Tied

Usage examples of "petrified".

She finished dressing, staunched the blood, and went off in a sedanchair, while I remained petrified, feeling that I did not deserve to live, and finding her conduct utterly outrageous and incomprehensible.

One day they were petrified by my asking them whether they did not sometimes sleep in the same bed, so as to give each other proofs of the tenderness of their mutual affection.

I was petrified, and called to my landlord to witness the unrighteous order I had received.

In the morning, Eliste reluctantly parted with five biquins for use of the washbasin, cold water and a petrified scrap of soap.

Sinking down upon the stone lip of a big through fed by the run-off of the public pump, she sat as if petrified, thinking of nothing at all.

Then rang out the wild, deafening shrieks of the women, and the terror-stricken screams of men, and all the figures on the raft remained petrified in their places.

The latter sat with drooping head, motionless, as though petrified in thought and prayer.

Foma also bowed low to him, bowed and remained as though petrified, standing with drooping head, his hand leaning against the table.

Foma stepped aside in confusion, seated himself in an armchair, and, petrified with curiosity, wide-eyed, began to watch the meeting of father and son.

She stopped as though petrified, holding a tray in her outstretched hands and listened to everything her brother said about the punishment inflicted upon him.

Zubov had not expected the attack, and he remained as petrified, with his hand uplifted.

And he remained as though petrified in a broken, uncomfortable attitude, all distorted, with an expression of pain on his face.

I pushed them aside, and entered the room so swiftly and suddenly that I found the gentleman in a state of nature while the girl remained stretched on the bed as if petrified by my sudden apparition.

I doubt if Alphonse heard me, being, fortunately for himself, almost petrified with horror.

We stood for a moment petrified, then turned and fled through a gate behind us into a walled garden, fell into, rather than found, a fortunate ditch, and lay there, scarce daring to whisper to each other until the stars were out.