Ossify meaning

ŏs'ə-fī'
To ossify is to become bony or to turn into bone or bony tissue, or to stop developing and become stagnant.

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.

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To change into bone; become bony.
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To become set in a rigidly conventional pattern.
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To convert (a membrane or cartilage, for example) into bone.
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To mold into a rigidly conventional pattern.
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To change or develop into bone.
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To settle or fix rigidly in a practice, custom, attitude, etc.
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To convert something such as a membrane or cartilage into bone.
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(intransitive) To transform (cause to transform) from a softer animal substance into bone; particularly the processes of growth in humans and animals.
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(intransitive, animate) To become (cause to become) inflexible and rigid in habits or opinions.
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(intransitive, inanimate) To grow (cause to grow) formulaic and permanent.
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(rare) To calcify.
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Origin of ossify

  • Latin os oss- bone ost- in Indo-European roots –fy
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Latin os, ossis (“bone") + -ify
    From Wiktionary

Ossify Sentence Examples

  • When a religion begins to ossify into a system of formulas and observances, those who protest in the name of heart-religion are not unfrequently known by the name of mystics.

  • In their case the sternum begins to ossify from three very distinct points - one of which is the centre of ossification of Nitzsch's grouping.

  • In the lower jaw of most of the Ecaudata the symphysial cartilages ossify separately from the dentary bones, forming the so-called mento-meckelian bones; but these symphysial bones, so distinct in the frog, are less so in the Hylidae and Bufonidae, almost indistinguishable in the Pelobatidae and Discoglossidae, whilst in the Aglossa they do not exist any more than in the other orders of batrachians.

  • For permaculture to remain alive - and not ossify into dogma - it must also change.

  • ossify into dogma - it must also change.

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Words near ossify in the Dictionary