calcify

[kal-suh-fahy]

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verb (used with or without object), cal·ci·fied, cal·ci·fy·ing.

Physiology. to make or become calcareous or bony; harden by the deposit of calcium salts.
Geology. to harden by deposition of calcium carbonate.
to make or become rigid or intransigent, as in a political position.

Origin of calcify

First recorded in 1830–40; calci- + -fy

Related formsnon·cal·ci·fied, adjectiveun·cal·ci·fied, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for calcified

Contemporary Examples

The mood then had calcified into an anti-Bush drive for change; general election messaging was relatively easy.
What Hillary Clinton Can Learn From Portugal, Costa Rica, and England in the World Cup
Nathan Daschle
July 1, 2014
Moore was something like urban planner Robert Moses, a visionary who calcified into a tyrant.
Jill Lepore on When Life Begins and Ends in ‘The Mansions of Happiness’
Malcolm Jones
June 21, 2012
This calcified Dickinson icon is hilariously inflated in the film Being John Malkovich (1999).
Emily Dickinson's Racy Side
Donna Seaman
March 1, 2010

Historical Examples

In Propristis schweinfurthi the tooth-sockets are not yet calcified.
A Guide to the Study of Fishes, Volume 1 (of 2)
David Starr Jordan
Now and then these grains are found to be in a calcified condition.
Special Report on Diseases of Cattle
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Other specimens show no trace of these calcified projections.
A Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia (Volume 1 of 2)
Charles Darwin
Calcified arteries are readily identified in skiagrams (Fig. 65).
Manual of Surgery
Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
A man of forty years may therefore have the calcified, pipe stem arteries of a man of eighty.
Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension:
Louis Marshall Warfield

British Dictionary definitions for calcified

calcify

verb -fies, -fying or -fied

to convert or be converted into lime
to harden or become hardened by impregnation with calcium salts

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for calcified

calcify

v.

1785 (implied in calcified), from French calcifier, from stem of Latin calcem "lime" (see chalk (n.)) + -fy. Related: Calcifying; calcification.

calcified in Medicine

calcify

(kăl′sə-fī′)

To make or become stony or chalky by deposition of calcium salts.

calcify

Origin of .css-1fxfie5{font-size:22px;}@media (max-width:768px){.css-1fxfie5{font-size:18px;margin:0 10px 10px 0;word-break:break-all;word-wrap:break-word;-webkit-hyphens:auto;-moz-hyphens:auto;-ms-hyphens:auto;hyphens:auto;line-height:22px;}}calcify

Examples from the Web for calcified

Contemporary Examples

The mood then had calcified into an anti-Bush drive for change; general election messaging was relatively easy.

Moore was something like urban planner Robert Moses, a visionary who calcified into a tyrant.

This calcified Dickinson icon is hilariously inflated in the film Being John Malkovich (1999).

Historical Examples

In Propristis schweinfurthi the tooth-sockets are not yet calcified.

Now and then these grains are found to be in a calcified condition.

Other specimens show no trace of these calcified projections.

Calcified arteries are readily identified in skiagrams (Fig. 65).

A man of forty years may therefore have the calcified, pipe stem arteries of a man of eighty.

calcify

Word Origin and History for calcified

calcify

v.

calcify

Origin of calcify