Link Centre Dictionary

ossify

os·sify

UK/ˈɒs.ɪ.faɪ/ US/ˈɑ.sə.faɪ/ uncommon rare

verb

1.

become bony

  • “The tissue ossified”
2.

make rigid and set into a conventional pattern

  • “rigidify the training schedule”
  • “ossified teaching methods”
  • “slogans petrify our thinking”
Synonyms
3.

cause to become hard and bony

  • “The disease ossified the tissue”

Origin

Back-formation from ossification, or modeled on French ossifier and formed from Latin os, ossis (“bone”) + -ify.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.