What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Petrify vs Stonify - What's the difference?

petrify | stonify |

As verbs the difference between petrify and stonify

is that petrify is to harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals while stonify is (obsolete) to petrify (as a mineral, to harden).

petrify

English

Verb

  • To harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) Kirwan
  • a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves
  • 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
  • Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.
  • (figurative) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Alexander Pope)
  • petrify a genius to a dunce
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (George Eliot)
  • A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    stonify

    English

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To petrify (as a mineral, to harden).
  • (dated) To become stone, to turn to stone.
  • (rare) To immobilize.