Definition

1. Verb (transitive):

   • To convert into lime or a calcareous substance; to harden or solidify by depositing calcium salts.
   • To make rigid, inflexible, or unchanging in attitude or habit.

2. Verb (intransitive):

   • To become converted into lime or a hard, stony substance by the deposition of calcium salts.
   • To become rigid, set, or unchanging.

Examples of Usage

• Transitive verb:

  • The mineral-rich water can calcify the pipes over time.
  • Years of strict routine had calcified his thinking, making him resistant to new ideas.

• Intransitive verb:

  • If left untreated, the tissue around the joint may calcify.
  • Political ideologies can calcify if they are not open to reform.

Advanced Usage

• In a medical/biological context: Refers to the pathological or normal deposition of calcium salts in body tissue.
  • The x-ray showed that the cartilage had begun to calcify.
• In a figurative/social context: Describes the process of becoming rigidly fixed in practices or beliefs.
  • The organization's bureaucracy has calcified, stifling all innovation.

Variants and Related Words

• Calcification (noun): The process of calcifying; a calcified formation.
  • The doctor noted arterial calcification on the scan.
• Calcified (adjective): Having become hardened by the deposition of calcium salts; figuratively, made inflexible.
  • They removed the calcified plaque from the artery.
  • His calcified opinions left no room for discussion.

Synonyms

• Harden (to become physically hard or rigid).
• Fossilize (literally to become a fossil; figuratively to become outmoded or rigid).
• Ossify (literally to turn into bone; figuratively to become rigid or conventional).
• Solidify (to make or become solid, firm, or fixed).

Antonyms

• Dissolve (to cause to disperse or disappear; to break down).
• Soften (to make or become less hard or rigid).
• Liquefy (to make or become liquid).
• Adapt / Flex (to change or be willing to change).

Related Phrases/Idioms

(Note: "Calcify" itself is not commonly used in idiomatic phrases. Its figurative use often appears in formal or academic descriptions of rigidity.) - To become calcified in one's ways: To become utterly set and unwilling to change one's habits or beliefs. - After decades in the same job, he had become calcified in his ways.

Verb

1. convert into lime
   • the salts calcified the rock
2. turn into lime; become calcified
   • The rock calcified over the centuries
3. become inflexible and unchanging
   • Old folks can calcify
4. become impregnated with calcium salts