Paralyse vs Petrify - What's the difference?
paralyse | petrify |
To afflict with paralysis.
To make unable to move; to immobilize.
To make unable to function properly.
To harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.
* (and other bibliographic particulars) Kirwan
To produce rigidity akin to stone.
To immobilize with fright.
To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
(figurative) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
* (and other bibliographic particulars) Dryden
(figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.
* (and other bibliographic particulars) (Alexander Pope)
* (and other bibliographic particulars) (George Eliot)
As verbs the difference between paralyse and petrify
is that paralyse is to afflict with paralysis while petrify is to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.paralyse
English
Alternative forms
* paralyze (mainly US and Canada )Verb
- The transport strike paralysed the city.
petrify
English
Verb
- a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves
- Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.
- petrify a genius to a dunce
- A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.