ossify
/ˈɒsɪfʌɪ
/verb (ossifies, ossifying, ossified) [no object]
1Turn into bone or bony tissue: these tracheal cartilages may ossify...
- The flat bones ossify directly from such fibrous tissue rather than from intermediary cartilage.
- Fossilized embryos are rarely discovered, because their bones only begin to ossify late in development.
- In later years some of these joints completely ossify (are converted to solid bone material).
Synonyms
turn into bone, become bony, harden, solidify, stiffen, rigidify, petrify, fossilize
rare indurate
2 (often as adjective ossified) Cease developing; stagnate: ossified political institutions...
- By the 1980s, political life was suffocating and the political system had ossified.
- The baron ought to be repellent, but he quickly gathers the audience on his side, as an unlikely agent for freedom in a repressive, ossified society.
- Too much debate on the Left is about defending ossified thought patterns and structures which have actually outlived their usefulness.
Synonyms
become inflexible, become rigid, fossilize, harden, rigidify, stagnate, become unyielding/obdurate, become unprogressive, cease developing
Derivatives
ossification
/ noun ...- I don't think any artist likes the idea of ossification, of becoming just a tradition.
- In fact, it shows the kind of ossification that comes from osteoporosis and would be the result of degeneration from lack of physical activity and being in a coma.
- But if talent, of any sort, is not nurtured within the organization, any organization, we will see ossification and decay.
ossific
Origin
Early 18th century: from French ossifier, from Latin os, oss- 'bone'.