from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
intransitive verb To convert into a fossil.
intransitive verb To make outmoded or inflexible with time; antiquate.
intransitive verb To become a fossil.
from The Century Dictionary.
To reduce to a fossil condition; convert into a fossil: as, to fossilize bones or wood.
To render like a fossil; cause to become antiquated or out of harmony with present time and circumstances and the progress of ideas: as, age has a tendency to fossilize men's minds and ideas.
To become or be changed into a fossil.
To become antiquated or obsolete; become out of harmony with the present time and circumstances by falling behind the progress of ideas.
Also spelled fossilise.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
intransitive verb To become fossil.
intransitive verb To become antiquated, rigid, or fixed, beyond the influence of change or progress.
transitive verb To convert into a fossil; to petrify.
transitive verb To cause to become antiquated, rigid, or fixed, as by fossilization; to mummify; to deaden.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
verb intransitive to become a fossil
verb by extension, intransitive to become inflexible or outmoded
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
verb convert to a fossil
verb become mentally inflexible
Etymologies
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Examples
Microbes can flash fossilize and presto, you can have a microfossil that registers as extraterrestrial when it was alive on Earth not that long before.
Microbes can flash fossilize and presto, you can have a microfossil that registers as extraterrestrial when it was alive on Earth not that long before.
Zachriel: Brains don't normally fossilize, but we know that human brains fit the nested hierarchy, that human brains are comprised of modifications of structures found in related organisms, that craniates follow a long, diversifying path of evolutionary history, and that humans are derived hominids.
State politics fossilize; Democrats see little reason to give up the spending they like if enough Republicans won't meet them anywhere close to the middle.
State politics fossilize; Democrats see little reason to give up the spending they like if enough Republicans won't meet them anywhere close to the middle.
Brains don't normally fossilize, but we know that human brains fit the nested hierarchy, that human brains are comprised of modifications of structures found in related organisms, that craniates follow a long, diversifying path of evolutionary history, and that humans are derived hominids.
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