1. to change into bone or become hard like bone
Usage: medical; biological
2. to become rigid, inflexible, or set in one’s ways
Usage: figurative

Examples

• Cartilage gradually ossifies as children grow into adults.
• The broken bone ossifies during the healing process.
• Over time, the organization’s culture ossifies and resists change.
• His thinking ossifies when he refuses to consider new ideas.
• The doctor explained how calcium deposits cause tissue to ossify.
• Without fresh perspectives, any institution eventually ossifies.