METAMORPHOSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does metamorphose mean? 

• METAMORPHOSE (verb)
  The verb METAMORPHOSE has 2 senses:

1. change completely the nature or appearance of

2. change in outward structure or looks

  Familiarity information: METAMORPHOSE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• METAMORPHOSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they metamorphose    ... he / she / it metamorphoses   
Past simple: metamorphosed   
Past participle: metamorphosed   
-ing form: metamorphosing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Change completely the nature or appearance of

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

metamorphose; transfigure; transmogrify

Context example:

Jesus was transfigured after his resurrection

Hypernyms (to "metamorphose" is one way to...):

change by reversal; reverse; turn (change to the contrary)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Change in outward structure or looks

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

metamorphose; transform; transmute

Context example:

The salesman metamorphosed into an ugly beetle

Hypernyms (to "metamorphose" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "metamorphose"):

aurify (transform into gold)

become; turn (undergo a change or development)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

 Context examples 

It is time some one undertook to rehumanise you, said I, parting his thick and long uncut locks; for I see you are being metamorphosed into a lion, or something of that sort.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My visitor, who had watched these metamorphoses with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass upon the table, and then turned and looked upon me with an air of scrutiny.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The boy metamorphosed into a savage on the instant.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His eyes turned blood-shot, and he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The juveniles of this class metamorphose from water-breathing organisms to air-breathing organisms upon adult maturation.

(Amphibia, NCI Thesaurus)

There, they metamorphose into transparent glass eels and migrate across the continental shelf to the coast.

(Study uncovers magnetic memory of European glass eels, National Science Foundation)

Upon the whole, the behaviour of these animals was so orderly and rational, so acute and judicious, that I at last concluded they must needs be magicians, who had thus metamorphosed themselves upon some design, and seeing a stranger in the way, resolved to divert themselves with him; or, perhaps, were really amazed at the sight of a man so very different in habit, feature, and complexion, from those who might probably live in so remote a climate.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)