ossify
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
-
to become bone or harden like bone.
-
to become rigid or inflexible in habits, attitudes, opinions, etc..
a young man who began to ossify right after college.
verb
-
to convert or be converted into bone
-
(intr) (of habits, attitudes, etc) to become inflexible
Other Word Forms
- ossifier noun
- unossifying adjective
Etymology
Origin of ossify
1705–15; < Latin ossi- (stem of os ) bone + -fy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Like every other detail here, that implicit complaint is dusty and ossified, and Mr. Williamson’s formerly wised-up dialogue has been supplanted by a grinding earnestness, with everyone constantly asking about one another’s feelings.
It manifests now in a brittleness that tints their everyday exchanges as ossifying empty nesters.
From Los Angeles Times
The window between “framework announced” and “market structure ossified” will be measured in quarters, not years.
From MarketWatch
The proposed cleanup and redevelopment of this ossified power plant joins a growing collection of such projects across the nation.
From New York Times
Nor can you, apparently, be a successful, divorced, outspoken biracial American career woman and thrive among the hierarchically ossified, stiff-upper-lip royal family.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
