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

The window between “framework announced” and “market structure ossified” will be measured in quarters, not years.

From MarketWatch

The proposed cleanup and redevelopment of this ossified power plant joins a growing collection of such projects across the nation.

From New York Times

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

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

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