How to Use petrify in a Sentence

petrify

verb
  • The dead tree petrified into stone.
  • Many of the aides who helped people like her dad were petrified.
    — Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 25 Apr. 2020
  • My career was in free fall, and as a single parent, this was petrifying.
    — John P. Darcy, Vogue, 27 Dec. 2018
  • Christy and Brian, petrified that the twins would smother, took turns staying awake round-the-clock to watch them.
    — Anndee Hochman, Philly.com, 4 July 2018
  • Like many of her classmates, loud, unexpected sounds petrified her.
    — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 9 June 2017
  • Hollywood seems to be petrified of AI.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 6 Aug. 2025
  • In the days leading up to 500 qualifying, he was petrified for his team.
    — Jim Ayello, Indianapolis Star, 14 June 2018
  • Peter is petrified by the idea of keeping someone like Luke in the mix as long as Hannah Brown did.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 21 Jan. 2020
  • Even so, our country’s asphalt limbs have mostly ceased to elongate, petrified into something like their eternal shape.
    — Ben Goldfarb, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Sep. 2023
  • He was petrified by the thought of dying of cancer or some other disease whose senselessness disgusted him.
    — Ian Buruma, The New Yorker, 6 Jan. 2025
  • Dean is petrified of heights, so naturally ABC stuck him on a blimp with Rachel for the day.
    — Aurelie Corinthios, PEOPLE.com, 20 June 2017
  • People were petrified of being rendered obsolete and losing their jobs.
    — Ann Kowal Smith, Forbes, 30 Mar. 2024
  • Seeing the beloved creature of my childhood petrified mid-prance in perpetuity was crushing.
    — Sarah Maslin Nir, New York Times, 8 July 2019
  • Scan the program for the Summer Olympics, and there’s very little that would petrify anyone’s mother.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2018
  • After a cataclysm petrified them, only their trunks remained.
    — Wired, 18 Nov. 2019
  • The idea of sitting for days of interviews — just their two faces filling the screen — was petrifying to the Lewises.
    — Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2019
  • Because success is petrifying for people, whereas failure is easy to manage.
    — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 18 Jan. 2020
  • In group chats and meetings, Republicans are privately petrified the Iran war could cost them the midterms.
    — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC news, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The only issue is his mother Laura (Wright), a woman who has lost a child once before and is petrified of a repeat.
    — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Medusa was known in ancient Greece for petrifying anyone who dared to look her in the eye, and has been seen as a personification of madness.
    — Sarah Belmont, ARTnews.com, 17 Dec. 2024
  • Is that what’s happening when Essun notices tooth marks on Alabaster’s crumbly petrifying flesh?
    — Wired Staff, WIRED, 25 May 2016
  • Johansson plays her with a tough edge to match her Queens accent, but Hester is clearly petrified by this perfect storm of ugly events.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026
  • Its dinosaur fossils, petrified remains, and early bird specimens number in the thousands.
    — Ginny Mohler, Smithsonian, 18 Apr. 2018
  • This arrangement worked – partly because Denise is petrified of flying and couldn’t stomach a long haul flight to Australia.
    — Francesca Street, CNN, 29 Mar. 2023
  • When the dead and buried don’t petrify, there are other ways that save them from destruction and preserve parts of their bodies with little change over vast spans of geological time.
    — Anna K. Behrensmeyer, Smithsonian, 8 June 2019
  • The former slingshots between harmony and hysteria; the latter petrifies its beauty under a haze of ashy gray powder.
    — Jazz Monroe, Pitchfork, 28 Nov. 2025
  • It was famously said to have been rated R simply for being so scary, and James Wan petrifies us with little more than hands clapping.
    — Brendan Morrow, The Week, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Danvers is a person that has absolutely frozen herself, petrified herself, hardened herself.
    — Kate Aurthur, Variety, 19 Feb. 2024
  • The rest spent Tuesday and Wednesday evenings petrified that their time in Detroit would be their swan song as legitimate candidates.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 1 Aug. 2019
  • Both singers felt insecure about their lack of education, neither could read sheet music, and while Jones was petrified of drowning, Franklin feared airplanes.
    — Jeff Maysh, Smithsonian, 28 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'petrify.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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