How to Use petrify in a Sentence

petrify

verb
Definition of petrifynext
Synonyms for petrifynext
  • The dead tree petrified into stone.
  • Many of the aides who helped people like her dad were petrified.
    — Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 25 Apr. 2020
  • Christy and Brian, petrified that the twins would smother, took turns staying awake round-the-clock to watch them.
    — Anndee Hochman, Philly.com, 4 July 2018
  • Dean is petrified of heights, so naturally ABC stuck him on a blimp with Rachel for the day.
    — Aurelie Corinthios, PEOPLE.com, 20 June 2017
  • Peter is petrified by the idea of keeping someone like Luke in the mix as long as Hannah Brown did.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 21 Jan. 2020
  • In the days leading up to 500 qualifying, he was petrified for his team.
    — Jim Ayello, Indianapolis Star, 14 June 2018
  • Scan the program for the Summer Olympics, and there’s very little that would petrify anyone’s mother.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2018
  • The idea of sitting for days of interviews — just their two faces filling the screen — was petrifying to the Lewises.
    — Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2019
  • My career was in free fall, and as a single parent, this was petrifying.
    — John P. Darcy, Vogue, 27 Dec. 2018
  • This swing will petrify Republicans in Congress who, up to now, have largely stayed in line behind Trump.
    — E.j. Dionne Jr., The Denver Post, 12 Apr. 2017
  • This arrangement worked – partly because Denise is petrified of flying and couldn’t stomach a long haul flight to Australia.
    — Francesca Street, CNN, 29 Mar. 2023
  • The rest spent Tuesday and Wednesday evenings petrified that their time in Detroit would be their swan song as legitimate candidates.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 1 Aug. 2019
  • That’s devastating to the economy, however, and Trump is petrified that the tanking stock market will take his re-election hopes right along with it.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2020
  • When the dead and buried don’t petrify, there are other ways that save them from destruction and preserve parts of their bodies with little change over vast spans of geological time.
    — Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Smithsonian, 8 June 2019
  • The experience is really best for children ages 10 and up, though even the toughest adults have reportedly been petrified by Terror in the Corn.
    — Sarah Kuta, The Know, 3 Oct. 2019
  • Like many of her classmates, loud, unexpected sounds petrified her.
    — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 9 June 2017
  • Even so, our country’s asphalt limbs have mostly ceased to elongate, petrified into something like their eternal shape.
    — Ben Goldfarb, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Sep. 2023
  • Seeing the beloved creature of my childhood petrified mid-prance in perpetuity was crushing.
    — Sarah Maslin Nir, New York Times, 8 July 2019
  • Both singers felt insecure about their lack of education, neither could read sheet music, and while Jones was petrified of drowning, Franklin feared airplanes.
    — Jeff Maysh, Smithsonian, 28 June 2018
  • In a scholarship application, Nelson wrote: There is nothing more petrifying than having to sleep on the wet, cold, hard surface of a train station.
    — Julia Preszler, BostonGlobe.com, 8 June 2018
  • That concept comes to the horror GOP lawmakers and lobbyists cognizant not only of how difficult tax reform will be, but petrified of adding health care back into the mix.
    — Phil Mattingly, CNN, 26 Sep. 2017
  • Is that what’s happening when Essun notices tooth marks on Alabaster’s crumbly petrifying flesh?
    — Wired Staff, WIRED, 25 May 2016
  • As a 12-year-old girl, Phoenix Moncada was petrified and confused by the physical changes of puberty – and resorted to cutting, or self-mutilation, over and over again.
    — Samantha Young, sacbee, 2 July 2018
  • Its dinosaur fossils, petrified remains, and early bird specimens number in the thousands.
    — Ginny Mohler, Smithsonian, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Because success is petrifying for people, whereas failure is easy to manage.
    — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 18 Jan. 2020
  • After a cataclysm petrified them, only their trunks remained.
    — Wired, 18 Nov. 2019
  • In Austin, Tex., undocumented women working in a laundromat cowered in the back of the room, petrified after seeing a video and a photograph of apprehensions outside a local grocery store and burger joint.
    — Nicholas Kulish, Caitlin Dickerson and Liz Robbins, New York Times, 10 Feb. 2017
  • Nor is there a state report documenting what happened at Heritage Village when a resident knocked over a woman in a wheelchair, scared employees into locking themselves in a bathroom and petrified another resident in the common area.
    — Sahana Jayaraman, AZCentral.com, 27 June 2023
  • Also worrisome to Spribille is that his own students are petrified of being wrong, a psychological state incompatible with breakthroughs.
    — Erica Gies, Scientific American, 1 June 2017
  • Pivotal to it: Melcher, supposedly petrified of Manson, was medicated to testify at his trial.
    — Stephen Phillips, latimes.com, 12 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'petrify.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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