different between petrify vs metrify

English

Etymology

From Middle French pétrifier, from Medieval Latin petrificare, from Latin petra (“rock”) + -ficare from facere (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?.t???fa?/

Verb

petrify (third-person singular simple present petrifies, present participle petrifying, simple past and past participle petrified)

1. To harden organic matter by permeating with water and depositing dissolved minerals.
   • 1799, Richard Kirwan, Geological Essays

     a river that petrifies any sort of wood or leaves

2. To produce rigidity akin to stone.
3. To immobilize with fright.
4. (intransitive) To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits.
5. (intransitive, figuratively) To become stony, callous, or obdurate.
   • 1685, John Dryden, Threnodia Augustalis

     Like Niobe we marble grow, / And petrify with grief.

6. (transitive, figuratively) To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrification.
   • 1874, George Eliot, letter to Mrs. Ponsonby

     A hideous fatalism, which ought, logically, to petrify your volition.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:frighten

Related terms

• petrifaction

Translations

English

Etymology

From Latin metrum (“meter”) + -fy. Compare French métrifier.

Verb

metrify (third-person singular simple present metrifies, present participle metrifying, simple past and past participle metrified)

1. To make verse.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Skelton to this entry?)

2. (US, Canada) metricate

Related terms

• metrification

See also

• metricize

References