ossify

To ossify is to become bony or to turn into bone or bony tissue, or to stop developing and become stagnant.

(verb)

When tissue starts to become bony, this is an example of a time when the tissue begins to ossify.
When a business becomes stagnant and stops growing, this is an example of a time when the business begins to ossify.

See ossify in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb, intransitive verb ossified, ossifying

Origin: < L os (gen. ossis), a bone (< IE base *ost- > Sans ásthi, Gr osteon, bone) + -fy

Related Forms:

See ossify in American Heritage Dictionary 4

verb os·si·fied, os·si·fy·ing, os·si·fies

verb, intransitive

To change into bone; become bony.
To become set in a rigidly conventional pattern: “The central ideas of liberalism have ossified” (Jeffrey Hart).

verb, transitive

Origin:

Origin: Latin os, oss-, bone; see ost- in Indo-European roots

Origin: + -fy

Related Forms:

Learn more about ossify

ossify synonyms

ossify medical definition

ossify in a sentence

link/cite print suggestion box

More from YD