fossilize
[fos-uh-lahyz]
- Geology. to convert into a fossil; replace organic with mineral substances in the remains of an organism.
- to change as if into mere lifeless remains or traces of the past.
- to make rigidly antiquated: Time has fossilized such methods.
Show More
- to become a fossil or like a fossil: The plant fossilized in comparatively recent geologic time.
- Linguistics. (of a linguistic form, feature, rule, etc.) to become permanently established in the interlanguage of a second-language learner in a form that is deviant from the target-language norm and that continues to appear in performance regardless of further exposure to the target language.
Show More
Also especially British, fos·sil·ise.
Origin of fossilize
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words for fossilize
dwindle, wilt, wither, shrink, stiffen, thicken, indurate, freeze, harden, congeal, solidify, petrify, fossilize, set, clarify, calcify, mineralize, lapidify, welter, searExamples from the Web for fossilize
Historical Examples of fossilize
It took twenty million years to make the fish and to fossilize him so we'd have the evidence later.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, CompleteAlbert Bigelow Paine
And he was able to guess, although he could not move his limbs to test it, that he was in the form in which he was to fossilize.
It Never Can Happen AgainWilliam De Morgan
When you stiffen up a way of life and try to fossilize it so it'll stay that way forever, then you find you've lost it.
The SyndicC.M. Kornbluth
In these fringing woods are some curious dripping crags which fossilize every article submitted to their influence.
The Rivers and Streams of EnglandA.G. Bradley
Cartilaginous jaws would not fossilize, and the Ostracoderms may have possessed them.
The Origin of VertebratesWalter Holbrook Gaskell
fossilize
fossilise
- to convert or be converted into a fossil
- to become or cause to become antiquated or inflexible
Show More
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 fossilize
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
fossil
[fŏs′əl]
- The remains or imprint of an organism from a previous geologic time. A fossil can consist of the preserved tissues of an organism, as when encased in amber, ice, or pitch, or more commonly of the hardened relic of such tissues, as when organic matter is replaced by dissolved minerals. Hardened fossils are often found in layers of sedimentary rock and along the beds of rivers that flow through them. See also index fossil microfossil trace fossil.
Show More
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.