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
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for petrifying
Verb
-
And, frankly, James Comey is one of the main culprits in undermining the public's trust in agencies like the FBI.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
28 Sep. 2025 -
Negotiations serve not only to address collective goods but also increasingly to secure geopolitical advantage, often undermining cooperative outcomes.—
Morgan Chalfant,
semafor.com,
26 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
So Much Fun) and others exhausting (the YSL Slime Language comps, 2023’s Business Is Business), as well as too many studio leaks unleashed via message board accounts.—
Mosi Reeves,
Rolling Stone,
29 Sep. 2025
-
Each one of those alerts puts millions of lives on hold – part of Russia’s strategy of terrorizing and exhausting Ukraine’s civilian population.—
Daria Tarasova-Markina,
CNN Money,
25 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Instead of reconnecting, conversations with Ella have become draining and repetitive.—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
29 Sep. 2025
-
Soil Any average well-draining soil is fine because these plants are used to tough conditions and adapt well to a variety of soil types.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
24 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
If the economy is not weakening, but strengthening, the outlook for inflation could tilt higher.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
1 Oct. 2025
-
Equal-weight consumer discretionary has been under a bit of pressure, with restaurant and travel names weakening, and is now clearly underperforming the broad market on a one-year basis.—
Michael Santoli,
CNBC,
30 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
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
-
Looming over all of it has been the sad, enervating situation with Alexander Isak, forever enshrined as a club legend by dint of Wembley last season but now beyond the point of tarnishing that legacy.—
George Caulkin,
New York Times,
10 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
To reduce the risk of mosquito bites and West Nile virus, health officials recommend using insect repellent and wearing long sleeves and long pants when outdoors, especially during peak mosquito activity at dawn and dusk.—
Caroline Neal,
Louisville Courier Journal,
2 Oct. 2025
-
My social media pages feature all complexions, including fair, medium, deep, and dark, each wearing different blush tones.—
Essence,
Essence,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Thin sound deadening The Enabling Technology prize went to CompositeEdge GmbH and ATA Mute BV for a new kind of sound deadening.—
Jonathan M. Gitlin,
ArsTechnica,
16 Sep. 2025
-
Scrolling on one’s phone can be a deadening experience, but here’s someone feeling, or at least pretending to feel, a genuine feeling—even if the abundance of these videos surely numbs us further.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
15 Sep. 2025
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.
Cite this Entry
“Petrifying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/petrifying. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share