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Calcified

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(pronounced kal-suh-fyd)  adjective

Definition

from the verb calcify.

Calcify (pronounced kal-suh-fy): 1. to harden or become stony by deposition of calcium salts. 2. to become rigid, inflexible, or unchangeable (in one’s ideas, beliefs, attitude, etc.); ossify.

Other Forms

Calcification (pronounced kal-suh-fih-kay-shun) noun

Main Example

• In spite of several decades of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, peace in the Mideast seems as remote as ever. Why so? Because, say analysts, the leadership on both sides is so badly calcified that it is unable to embrace ideas that are bold and imaginative.

Workplace Examples

• The remarkable thing about Jared, our manager, is his openness to new ideas. What a contrast from his predecessor who was pretty much fusty and calcified.
• I just realized that we are no closer to reaching a consensus than when we began this meeting more than three hours ago. No one in this room, which of course includes me, has budged even an eighth of an inch from his or her initial position. We sure are a pretty calcified lot.

Other Examples

• a new manager exclaiming in frustration: “I’m amazed how rigid this place is. Utterly calcified! People are unbelievably content with the way things are. I don’t know if I can ever turn this ship around.”
• after nearly three decades of teaching the very same ideas and concepts, possessing the very same beliefs, and pursuing the very same interests and goals, a professor realizing that he had become calcified and that it was time to scrutinize every aspect of his day-to-day living and reinvent himself
• a slow moving, calcified monopoly
• in a bid to preserve its entrepreneurial character and to avoid calcification setting in, a corporate giant constantly infusing its ranks with new blood
• In its report on the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the board of investigators placed some of the blame on the shuttle program management, saying it had become calcified and much too bureaucratic and was, therefore, slow to respond to new information (such as warnings from program engineers about the detrimental effects of foam hitting the orbiter during launch).

© 2018 V.J. Singal
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