ossified

American  

[os-uh-fahyd] / ˈɒs əˌfaɪd /

adjective

1. hardened like or into bone.

2. Slang. drunk.

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ossified British  

/ ˈɒsɪˌfaɪd /

adjective

1. converted into bone

2. having become set and inflexible

3. slang intoxicated; drunk

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Other Word Forms

• unossified adjective

Etymology

Origin of ossified

First recorded in 1790–1800; ossify + -ed ²

Example Sentences

Like every other detail here, that implicit complaint is dusty and ossified, and Mr. Williamson’s formerly wised-up dialogue has been supplanted by a grinding earnestness, with everyone constantly asking about one another’s feelings.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 26, 2026

Nor can you, apparently, be a successful, divorced, outspoken biracial American career woman and thrive among the hierarchically ossified, stiff-upper-lip royal family.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 2, 2023

Since then, the sprawling content business that the New York Times Book Review mystery columnist Sarah Weinman has called the true-crime industrial complex has matured and ossified.

From New York Times • Feb. 22, 2023

Coasting on his prewar renown, he won elections to Congress and as governor of Massachusetts, but he did little but make new enemies and dismay old friends: “The resolve ossified to rigidity.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2022

First surprise flitted over his features, then it ossified to hostility.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie