petrifying

verb

Definition of petrifyingnext
present participle of petrify
as in undermining
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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for petrifying
  1. undermining
  2. exhausting
  3. draining
  4. weakening
  5. enervating
  6. wearing
  7. deadening
  8. desiccating
Verb
  • At the time of the last catastrophe, a convulsive shift in media consumption began undermining the value of the legacy distribution scheme, which in turn led to grave uncertainties related to revenue sharing.
    — Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • More fundamentally, Vietnam showed that misadventures abroad could boomerang, weakening American democracy and societal cohesion and, ultimately, undermining the country’s international standing.
    — David Sacks, Foreign Affairs, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of undermining
Verb
  • This heats the air dramatically, expanding it and exhausting the hot gas at a much higher velocity than normal.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 1 Nov. 2026
  • So, get ready for mountain vistas and exhausting cycling days to take your breath away and questions about your life choices to swirl around in your head!
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of exhausting
Verb
  • Wembanyama scored 10 of San Antonio's first 12 points, powering down two dunks and draining all six free-throw attempts.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Nov. 2026
  • These volatile compound intermediates shuttle and dissolve from the cathode, draining battery life.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026
Definition of draining
Verb
  • The victory came after a Republican redistricting effort aimed at weakening Latino voting power backfired.
    — Andrea Flores, Los Angeles Times, 4 Nov. 2026
  • And the indicators tell you whether those conditions are strengthening or weakening.
    — Allison Mais, Forbes.com, 30 Oct. 2026
Definition of weakening
Verb
  • Such flat, enervating filmmaking makes the whole endeavor a shockingly cynical affair.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
  • Campbell, the North Carolina folk singer, describes an enervating process marked by back-and-forth exchanges and lots of waiting.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2026
Definition of enervating
Verb
  • In the photo, Ever is wearing black mascara that highlights her blue-green eyes, the spitting image of her mother’s, and glossy pink lipstick.
    — Chanel Vargas, InStyle, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Our short list shapes up with a 200-hp power cruiser wearing a Lotus badge, a five-cylinder Puch moped, and an eight-cylinder, 1,000cc two-stroke motorcycle.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of wearing
Verb
  • Inside the cabin, extensive additional sound deadening in the doors, trunk and wheel arches means phone calls and passenger conversations are entirely effortless at highway speeds.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Each presents a group portrait of a handful of disaffected British suburbanites—husbands who resent their deadening jobs, toddlers who whine and interrupt, and, above all, hassled wives subsumed by a crush of household obligations.
    — Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2026
Definition of deadening
Verb
  • In the Rocky Mountains, years of extreme heat and drought have baked the landscape, drying up streams that feed the Colorado River and desiccating pastures where cattle graze.
    — Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Suddenly, pest populations are large enough to make a meaningful impact, and one too many afternoons of 100+ degree weather have begun desiccating leaves.
    — Anthony Reardon, Kansas City Star, 2 Aug. 2026
Definition of desiccating
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.

Browse Nearby Words

petrify
petrifying
pets
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Cite this Entry

“Petrifying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/petrifying. Accessed 9 Nov. 2026.

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