ossify

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“
I have always tried not to ossify, keeping in view a possible serene time to come, when I might put forth blossoms in this vernal fashion that tempts my middle-aged fancy.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. intransitive verb To change into bone; become bony.
  2. intransitive verb To become set in a rigidly conventional pattern: "The central ideas of liberalism have ossified” (Jeffrey Hart).
  3. transitive verb To convert (a membrane or cartilage, for example) into bone.
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Examples (50)

  • What's even more disgusting is an Israeli scholar using the Holocaust as an excuse for Israel's policy to further ossify the Palestinians as third world citizens who have no rights. —  Comments from Left Field
  • The difference is they have a chance not to do what the music industry did, which was to ossify and to basically lock themselves in their fortress until they ran out of food. —  Forbes.com: News
  • The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's roster of drop-off sites for household hazardous waste again confirms that around these parts, it's almost impossible to get rid of the assortment of semi-dangerous chemicals without leaving them to ossify in a landfill for an epoch or two.
  • I have always tried not to ossify, keeping in view a possible serene time to come, when I might put forth blossoms in this vernal fashion that tempts my middle-aged fancy. —  The Daughters of Danaus
  • To ossify is to become bony Section 72. —  Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata
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This word has been looked up 114 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin os, oss-, bone; see ost- in Indo-European roots + -fy.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from French ossifier = Spanish osificar = Portuguese ossificar, from Latin os (oss-), bone, + -ficare, from facere, make.
 

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/ˈɑsɪfai/
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