mineralize
verbEtymology From mineral + -ize.
1
To convert to a mineral; to petrify.
- in all these cases , the bones found in caverns are never mineralised, but simply in the state of grave bones more or less decayed or incrusted by stalagmite ; and have no farther connexion with the rocks themselves1823, William Buckland, Reliquiæ Diluvianæ:
2
To impregnate with minerals.
- mineralized water
3
To mineralogize; to collect and study minerals.
- He was a senior when he asked Barnes if he ever went "mineralizing," referred admiringly to Bowdoin's Professor Cleaveland, and expressed a wish to "give a good knock about the rocks in Maine."1978, Eleanor Marguerite Tilton, Amiable Autocrat: A Biography of Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes:
- Antonyms
- demineralize
- Derived terms
- biomineralize, mineralized, mineralizer, permineralize, remineralize