View synonyms for fossilize

fossilize

[ fos-uh-lahyz ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

verb (used with object)

, fos·sil·ized, fos·sil·iz·ing.

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.

, fos·sil·ized, fos·sil·iz·ing.

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.

fossilize

/ ˈfɒsɪˌlaɪz /

First recorded in 1785–95; fossil + -ize

It took twenty million years to make the fish and to fossilize him so we'd have the evidence later.

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.

In these fringing woods are some curious dripping crags which fossilize every article submitted to their influence.

Cartilaginous jaws would not fossilize, and the Ostracoderms may have possessed them.

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.

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