metamorphose
verbUK /ˌmɛtəˈmɔːˌfəʊz/ · US /ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊz/
Etymology From French métamorphoser, from Old French metamorphose, from Latin metamorphōsis; see metamorphosis.
1
Of a moth or insect, to undergo metamorphosis.
2
Broadly To undergo some transformation.
- In fact, perhaps this is the pure and perfect incest: the brother realising that the sister’s virginity must be destroyed in order to have existed at all, taking that virginity in the person of the brother-in-law, the man whom he would be if he could become, metamorphose into, the lover, the husband; by whom he would be despoiled, choose for despoiler, if the could become, metamorphose into the sister, the mistress, the bride.1936, William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!:
- Environmental problems are not objectively existing physical phenomena amenable to reliable analysis and diagnosis. They are social constructions whose meaning and significance metamorphose and wax and wane according to changeable human interest.1995, Ian Robottom, Hart Paul, “Behaviorist EE Research: Environmentalism as Individualism”, in The Journal of Environmental Education, volume 26, number 2, →DOI, page 8:
1 more example
- In fresh snow air can pass with little obstruction from the atmosphere through the snowpack to the ground: given life by differences in the temperature gradient, the snowpack breathes. But time changes that. The snow may metamorphose into what is called equitemperature, or ET, snow.1995 January 23, Cullen Murphy, “In Praise of Snow”, in The Atlantic:
3
To transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance.
- Derived terms
- metamorphosable, metamorphoser, unmetamorphosed
- Related terms
- metamorphism, metamorphosis