fossilised
part of speech
adjective (fossilised); verb past form of fossilise (fossilise, fossilises, fossilised, fossilising); US spelling fossilized
meaning for a pupil
1) Turned into a fossil: the remains or print of a plant or animal that has slowly turned to stone over millions of years. tree →
2) (figurative) Old-fashioned and unable to change, like ideas or rules stuck in the past. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and history lessons it comes with dinosaurs, ammonites, ancient trees and rocks: a fossilised bone tells the reader the creature lived very long ago. Also fossilised footprints, fossilised poo (coprolite), fossilised wood. In opinion writing, fossilised ideas are ones that never change.
examples
- We found a fossilised shell on the beach at Lyme Regis. tree →
- The museum shows a fossilised dinosaur egg. tree →
- Fossilised footprints prove that the animals walked here. tree →
- Amber can hold a fossilised insect inside it. tree →
- Over millions of years, the tree trunk fossilised into stone. tree →
- My uncle says the school rules are fossilised and need updating. tree →
note
UK-style spelling fossilised; US fossilized. Fossilisation takes a very long time, usually thousands to millions of years, not a few years. Not every dead animal becomes a fossil; most rot away.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «fossilised» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.