Dictionary

metamorphose en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊz/ (General-American)
• /ˌmɛtəˈmɔːˌfəʊz/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˌmɛtəˈmɔɹˌfoʊs/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From French métamorphoser, from Old French metamorphose, from Latin metamorphōsis; see metamorphosis.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) Of a moth or insect, to undergo metamorphosis.
2. (broadly, intransitive) To undergo some transformation.
   • 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:
   • 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 14, Cullen Murphy, “In Praise of Snow”, in The Atlantic:
   • 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!:
3. (transitive) To transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance.

Forms

Deriveds

metamorphosable · metamorphoser · unmetamorphosed

Relateds

metamorphosis · metamorphism

Synonyms

transmogrify · transfigurate · metamorphize · metamorphose · metamorphize · transform · metamorphosize · transmogrify · evolve · transmute · metamorphize · convert · metamorphize · transform · metamorphosize · transfigure · evolve · develop · transume · draw · shift · reconvert · transmute · metamorphose

Translations (14)

io metamorfosar (to undergo metamorphosis) · fr métamorphiser (to undergo metamorphosis) · ca metamorfosar-se (to undergo metamorphosis) · la transfiguro (to undergo metamorphosis) · bg превръщам (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance) · ca metamorfosar (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance) · pt metamorfosear (to undergo metamorphosis) · bg превръщам се (to undergo metamorphosis) · fr métamorphiser (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance) · bg преобразувам (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance) · es metamorfosearse (to undergo metamorphosis) · pt metamorfosear (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance) · io transformar (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance) · es metamorfosear (to transform (something) so that it has a completely different appearance)