ossified

[ os-uh-fahyd ]

adjective

1. hardened like or into bone.
2. Slang. drunk.

ossified

/ ˈɒsɪˌfaɪd /

adjective

1. converted into bone
2. having become set and inflexible
3. slang.
   intoxicated; drunk

Other Words From

• un·ossi·fied adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of ossified¹

First recorded in 1790–1800; ossify + -ed ²

Example Sentences

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

“It’s an ossified bastion of stodgy old engineers,” he said.

From Seattle 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

This ossified, rigid, self-protecting bureaucratic monstrosity is an attack on freedom and the ability of free people to govern themselves.

From Washington Times