Definition of "ossify" []

• To change into bone; become bony. (verb-intransitive)
• To become set in a rigidly conventional pattern: "The central ideas of liberalism have ossified” ( Jeffrey Hart). (verb-intransitive)
• To convert (a membrane or cartilage, for example) into bone. (verb-transitive)
• To mold into a rigidly conventional pattern. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The party is both fanatical and well-informed, and thus unlikely either to "ossify" or "grow soft" and collapse."
• "At the same time, sure, "ossify" isn't exactly common parlance in most of our everyday exchanges, but it's not like it's a totally insane archaic thing that I dredged out of the OED, nor is Beau Geste this weird name that only the deepest scholars of French Algeria would know about (the movie was pretty big in its time ...)."
• "Woody Allen, like i say, i think of him in similar ways–went from funny-angry to just angry, real exploitive jerk in many ways, and god knows he logged in enough hours on the psych’s couch. i dunno. i think maybe it is a special hazard for people who become famous, but who knows–some people just kind of ossify at a certain point."