Words / C2

OS-if-eye/ˈɒsɪfaɪ/

To ossify is to harden into bone, or of a habit or institution, to become rigid and unable to change: ossified rules, let a practice ossify. Harden is everyday; fossilise is the close metaphor. Rigid (already in the dictionary) is the resulting state. Do not let last year’s workaround ossify into the only protocol.

Meaning

To harden into bone; of a system or habit, to become rigid and unable to change.

Examples

• “Do not let last year’s workaround ossify into the protocol.”
• “Harden is everyday. Fossilise is the cousin metaphor. Calcify is the clinical twin. Flexible is the opposite flavour. A dated rule can still be right. A one-year patch that nobody reviews is how a clinic loses the spare key. Review the protocol; do not worship it.”

Good to know

Harden; become inflexible. Everyday: harden. Close: fossilise. A workaround that is never reviewed becomes the problem.

Near in meaning

harden

New