Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Changed to bone or something resembling bone; hardened by deposits of mineral matter of any kind; -- said of tissues.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of ideas or attitudes, inflexible, old-fashioned.
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of ossify.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective set in a rigidly conventional pattern of behavior, habits, or beliefs

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Analogous to the bony tissues are the so-called ossified (really, calcified) arteries.

    McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896 Various

  • Introducing the annual report today, Thompson said that setting "appropriate limits" for the BBC's online operation would not mean that services "ossified".

    Trust endorses 25% budget cut to BBC online services 2010

  • “The existing seem has been kind of ossified,” he said.

    The End of eBay’s Egalitarianism - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • “The existing seem has been kind of ossified,” he said.

    The End of eBay’s Egalitarianism - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • Instead, they argue, Republicans need to be seen as a party with new ideas for reforming "ossified" features of that very government, particularly regulatory and tort systems that are behind the times, and an education system that needs to make teachers both better paid and more accountable for their performance.

    Democrats' Woes Won't Cure GOP 2009

  • To inspire the state, Spitzer vows to flush out the "ossified" systems of government in Albany; to spur the economy, he wants to trim taxes and lance a bloated health-care system.

    The Democrats' Engine Room 2007

  • If anything indicates the trouble we are in, it has to be the dessicated, ossified, meaningless mumbo-jumbo of church ritual today.

    Archive 2005-07-01 2005

  • Is that something you really want to see, that kind of ossified thinking in a bureaucratic organization like Homeland Security?

    CNN Transcript Jul 21, 2005 2005

  • DOBBS: The Columbia accident investigation board, as you know, they basically demanded that that kind of ossified response that was repetitive of the bureaucracy, frankly, of NASA.

    CNN Transcript Jul 26, 2005 2005

  • If anything indicates the trouble we are in, it has to be the dessicated, ossified, meaningless mumbo-jumbo of church ritual today.

    Dawg's Blawg 2005

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  • Also known as drunk

    January 31, 2007