ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Fossilize

Definition, Meaning & Examples

Pronunciation /ˈfɒs.ɪl.aɪz/ · Part of speech verb

Quick meaning: Fossilize is a verb meaning (transitive) To make into a fossil.

Meaning

(transitive) To make into a fossil.

More Meanings

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

Example Sentences

I'll meet you again Blanketed in soil Fossilized in photographs
Ten layers of birthdays on a woman's head / Are apt to fossilize her girlish mirth.
I was getting fossilised myself, but of late my stock of ideas has been very much enlarged.
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.

Word Forms

Synonyms for fossilize

Depending on context, synonyms include fossilate, fossilify.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include fossilise, fossilify, agatize, coalify, ossify, vestigialize.

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Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.