fossilize

English

Alternative forms

• fossilise

Etymology

fossil +‎ -ize

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɒs.ɪl.aɪz/, /ˈfɒsl̩aɪz/

Verb

1. (transitive) to make into a fossil
   • 1989, Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers:

     Most of the booths had been scooped clean by the scalpel-sharp corner of the glacier in the crash. Three remained. Two of them were punctured and, inside, the once-human occupants had been fossilized into the walls by centuries upon centuries of patient ice.

2. (intransitive) to become a fossil
3. (figurative, by extension, intransitive) to become inflexible or outmoded
4. (figurative, by extension, transitive) To make antiquated, rigid, or fixed; to deaden.
   • Elizabeth Browning

     Ten layers of birthdays on a woman's head / Are apt to fossilize her girlish mirth.

Synonyms

• (To become a fossil): fossilate (dated), fossilify (dated)

Related terms

• fossilization

Translations

to make into fossil

• Finnish: fossilisoida
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to become a fossil

• Finnish: fossilisoitua
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: megkövesedik (hu)