PETRIFIED Synonyms: 82 Similar and Opposite Words

petrified

verb

Definition of petrified

past tense of petrify

as in exhausted

to deprive of emotional or intellectual vitality groupthink and peer pressure have so petrified the thinking of the company's top brass that they haven't produced an innovative product in years

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of petrified The first film follows a group of French high-school students who travel to Naples on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius. — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 20 May 2026 Johansson plays her with a tough edge to match her Queens accent, but Hester is clearly petrified by this perfect storm of ugly events. — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026 In group chats and meetings, Republicans are privately petrified the Iran war could cost them the midterms. — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC news, 16 Apr. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for petrified

Verb

Trump is waging a campaign in the final moments of the midterm election to quell discontent among farmers, truckers and drivers exhausted by $4 gas and near-record diesel.

— Matt Egan, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026
In an interview with the Financial Times, published today, Zelenskyy indicated his own patience had been exhausted.

— David Hickey, NBC news, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of exhausted

Verb

Several roads near Westward Beach in Malibu are closed after additional erosion undermined the roadway and exposed a Los Angeles County water main.

— Chelsea Hylton, CBS News, 20 Oct. 2026
Meanwhile, technological advances made possible by the digital age have undermined the social contract of the industrial era and hollowed out the middle class.

— Charles Kupchan, Foreign Affairs, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of undermined

Verb

But Jess Ralston, a senior energy analyst at Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, a non profit focused on climate change, said that 90% of the oil and gas has already been drained from the North Sea basin.

— Hanna Ziady, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2026
Salvador has treated patients whose infections formed pockets of pus that had to be drained to protect their vision.

— Angela Haupt, Time, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of drained

Verb

Most people wake mildly dehydrated after six to eight hours of sleep, dietitians and endocrinologists say.

— Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 15 Oct. 2026
Hydrate before you caffeinate Six to eight hours of sleep leaves most people mildly dehydrated by morning, thanks to breathing and sweat.

— Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 15 Oct. 2026

Definition of dehydrated

Verb

Strewn around the edges of the room are ceramic casts of the pocked fruit, brown and desiccated like a pile of skulls.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2026
Olive trees, desiccated from the Xylella fastidiosa bacterial epidemic, are consumed by fire and slump to the ground in a burnished black heap.

— Angelica Calabrese, Longreads, 7 July 2026

Definition of desiccated

Verb

This is the league, remember, where a man (Harvey Updyke) confessed to poisoning the trees at Auburn on a radio show after Alabama lost to the Tigers, and a coach (Jackie Sherrill at Mississippi State) castrated a bull to motivate his squad.

— Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2026
Those expectations got castrated because of last season’s early struggles.

— Omar Kelly, Miami Herald, 24 July 2026

Definition of castrated

Verb

The mother-of-two wore a pair of white bottoms with a matching skirt and silk angel wings across her shoulders.

— Tracy Wright, FOXNews.com, 19 Oct. 2026
Kendall Jenner and Hunter Schafer, in Valentino and Prada, respectively, wore two of the evening’s most compelling arguments for black and white evening attire.

— José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 18 Oct. 2026

Definition of wore

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pet peeves

petrified

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“Petrified.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/petrified. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of petrified

verb

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