| 释义 |
petrifaction|ˌpɛtrɪˈfækʃən|
Also 8–9 erron. petre-.
[f. petrify, after satisfaction, stupefaction, from satisfy, stupefy, L. satisfacĕre, stupefacĕre, etc., instead of the etymological form petrification.]
1. The action of petrifying, or condition of being petrified; conversion into stone or stony substance; in Path. formation of ‘stone’ or calculus.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. 91 That corall is soft under water, but waxeth hard as soon as it arriveth unto the ayre,..we have some reason to doubt,..from so sudden a petrifaction, and strange induration. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Petrifaction, is properly the changing of a mix'd Body into a Stony Substance, when it had no such Nature before; and the Action by which this is performed, is called, Petrification. 1802Playfair Illustr. Hutton. The. 117 What are called petrifactions or the formation of stony substances by means of water. 1885G. Denman in Law Rep. 14 Q.B. Div. 951 Pearson..[had made a] well for the convenient petrifaction of barristers' wigs and other interesting objects. 1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 195 Dead tissues lying in the midst of living tissues are prone to calcification and petrifaction.
b. fig.: cf. petrify 2.
1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. vi. §17 The principle of compassion..broke through his petrifaction, and would shew that it could not totally be eradicated. 1820Hazlitt Lect. Dram. Lit. 253 This is making a petrefaction both of love and poetry. 1868Hawthorne Amer. Note-Bks. (1879) II. 148 To my horror and petrifaction. 1874Deutsch Rem. 172 The common assumption that Islam is identical with mental and religious petrifaction.
2. concr. Something petrified, or formed by conversion into stone; a stony concretion formed by the petrifying of an organic body, as in fossils, or by the deposition of mineral substance from solution in water or other liquid, as in stalactites and stalagmites.
1686Plot Staffordsh. 190 So far are these stones from being petrifactions. 1692Ray Disc. ii. iv. (1732) 155 His curious Collection of Petrifactions. 1758J. S. Le Dran's Observ. Surg. (1771) 259 A Disposition in the Blood to form Concretions and Petrefactions. 1812Chron. in Ann. Reg. 142 There was discovered under the cliffs..the complete petrifaction of a crocodile, seventeen feet in length. 1848Dickens Dombey xxiii, Curling and twisting like a petrifaction of an arbour over the threshold. 1872Nicholson Palæont. 2 Fossils, or, as they are often termed, petrifactions.
fig.1818Hazlitt Eng. Poets v. (1870) 128 He gives you the petrifaction of a sigh. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. xiv. (1858) 449 The House of Loretto is the petrifaction, so to speak, of the ‘Last Sigh of the Crusades’. |