as in to undermine
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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Recent Examples of petrify
He was petrified by the thought of dying of cancer or some other disease whose senselessness disgusted him.
—
Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025
Medusa was known in ancient Greece for petrifying anyone who dared to look her in the eye, and has been seen as a personification of madness.
—Sarah Belmont, ARTnews.com, 17 Dec. 2024
The body was supposedly petrified by sap, and the loggers found several gold coins dating to the late 1600s, as well as pieces of paper identifying the person as Pierre D’Artagnan.
—Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2024
But Ingrid is petrified of dying and tries to convince Martha there is still plenty worth living for.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for petrify
Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025
Medusa was known in ancient Greece for petrifying anyone who dared to look her in the eye, and has been seen as a personification of madness.
—Sarah Belmont, ARTnews.com, 17 Dec. 2024
The body was supposedly petrified by sap, and the loggers found several gold coins dating to the late 1600s, as well as pieces of paper identifying the person as Pierre D’Artagnan.
—Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2024
But Ingrid is petrified of dying and tries to convince Martha there is still plenty worth living for.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for petrify
Recent Examples of Synonyms for petrify
Verb
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Adopting the Southern view, the Supreme Court issued opinions that severely undermined the legal architecture of Reconstruction.—
Equal Justice Initiative,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
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Others tell us that AI will completely undermine society.—
David Lyman,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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With some estimates putting wave heights as much as 35 feet, weakened hatch covers would have been vulnerable to such waves.—
Stephen J. Beard,
USA Today,
7 Nov. 2025
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The years of horrific violence have weakened Sudan, plunging its institutions into chaos and making its population more vulnerable and poorer.—
Ivana Kottasová,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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During the final week, the crew worked nonstop for sixty hours in a heat wave that parched energy and drained our bodies.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
7 Nov. 2025
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Instead, voters now are expressing concerns that high prices for groceries, electricity bills and housing are draining their bank accounts.—
Josh Boak,
Fortune,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Sereno proposes that the creatures’ carcasses were first desiccated in a drought before suddenly being engulfed by sediment—likely brought on by a flood.—
Andrea Tamayo,
Scientific American,
23 Oct. 2025
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The authors argue that those features, the intact, hyper-flexed skeletons and the absence of the disarticulation expected after ordinary decay, indicate bodies had been desiccated before burial rather than interred as fresh cadavers.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
16 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The team concentrated on stars that had recently entered the post-main sequence phase, having exhausted their hydrogen, and identified just 130 planets and planet candidates orbiting nearby – 33 of which had not been detected before.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Nov. 2025
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Despite these real dangers, our law enforcement shows incredible restraint in exhausting all options before force is escalated.—
James Hill,
ABC News,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Plastination offers a fundamentally different approach, first dehydrating the wood using acetone and then infusing it with a compatible polymer.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Nov. 2025
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To combat that, find a sunscreen that can protect you from UV rays and the dehydrating effects of flying.—
Iona Brannon,
Travel + Leisure,
2 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Some of these values—such as a disciplined commitment to physical fitness—are good and, in my opinion, necessary correctives to the enervating distractions of 21st-century living.—
Dan Brooks,
The Atlantic,
2 Oct. 2025
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Bears do not truly hibernate, but instead enervate, or enter a state of torpor, in their dens.—
Natalie Krebs,
Outdoor Life,
25 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Donkey has now been castrated, and the adorable family trio lives together in a large field with Partridge's other horses.—
Alyce Collins,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Aug. 2025
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The opera premiered in Rome at a time when castrati, or castrated male singers, took on treble roles; a papal decree forbade women from performing onstage.—
Hannah Edgar,
Chicago Tribune,
28 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Petrify.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/petrify. Accessed 11 Nov. 2025.
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