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 characters are petrified like specimens, expressing and embodying only what fits into the film’s design, with no potential for inconvenient loose ends for viewers to follow outside the frame’s borders. — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2026 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

His crass, combative rhetoric, frequent public attacks and norm-breaking behavior have exhausted the American people.

— Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 11 Nov. 2026
The collateral damage could be to exhausted voters who simply wanted the direction of the country to change.

— Christopher Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Nov. 2026

Definition of exhausted

Verb

The court earlier said that the judge decided against an open trial to ensure that national security interests wouldn’t be undermined.

— Kanis Leung, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2026
Yet their efforts are undermined by the very German institutions meant to support them.

— John Hopewell, Variety, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of undermined

Verb

My arms seemed suddenly drained of all strength and took on that sickly spaghettilike feeling.

— ANGUS CAMERON, Outdoor Life, 11 Nov. 2026
The rich muck soils south of Lake Okeechobee have been gradually wasting away since Floridians drained the Everglades and began farming and tilling the land.

— Nicolas Rivero, Sun Sentinel, 11 Nov. 2026

Definition of drained

Verb

The Times also found that the towers had no visible shear walls, and that the uniform orientation of their columns weakened these high-rises against seismic forces.

— Avery Schmitz, CNN Money, 8 Nov. 2026
Once a symbol of superlative government competence, the nation’s weakened federal space agency has largely outsourced its extraterrestrial ambitions to the private sector.

— Peter Jamison, Washington Post, 7 Nov. 2026

Definition of weakened

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

Bacall wore the bracelet in her daily life, carrying with her that small memento of the film that marked the beginning of her relationship with Bogart.

— Filippo Iarocci, Vanity Fair, 2 Nov. 2026
Many friends wore vintage, some designed their own looks, and others even wore their own wedding dresses.

— Shelby Wax, Vogue, 2 Nov. 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 15 Nov. 2026.

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Synonyms of petrified

verb

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