Definitions
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.
- 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.
- intransitive verb To become fossil.
- intransitive verb To become antiquated, rigid, or fixed, beyond the influence of change or progress.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive to become a
fossil - verb by extension, intransitive to become
inflexible oroutmoded
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb convert to a fossil
- verb become mentally inflexible
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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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.
First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011
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Though brains don't normally fossilize, we do have a great deal of fossil evidence revealing the long evolutionary history of chordates.
Assessing Fault 2009
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Otherwise, there is a danger that they will simply mark time as language learners, or even – to use a now fairly discredited term – fossilize.
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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.
First Contact Marc Kaufman 2011
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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.
Assessing Fault 2009
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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.
Wisconsin governor's -- and the GOP's -- strange 'budget discipline' 2011
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Otherwise, there is a danger that they will simply mark time as language learners, or even – to use a now fairly discredited term – fossilize.
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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.
Stromberg: Wisconsin governor's -- and the GOP's -- strange 'budget discipline' 2011
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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.
Assessing Fault 2009
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Within several months, the ash will simply blow away into the atmospheric background or fossilize to form new rock.
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