transmogrify \trans-MOG-ruh-fy\, transitive verb:
To change into a different shape or to transform, often with bizarre or humorous effect.
A washing machine transmogrified into a guitar.
— Adrian Searle, “Come, friendly pigeons”, The Guardian The
Guardian, March 16, 2000For the impulsive sin of turning to look back at the funereal pyre of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife is transmogrified into
a pillar of salt as she flees the inferno.
— Elizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women Bitch:
In Praise of Difficult Women
Roast chicken is still roast chicken whether you label it haute cuisine, bourgeois cuisine or country cooking; even calling it “poulet roti” will not transmogrify this
simple bird.
— Jacques Pepin, “The Chicken Dinner, Both Humble and Noble”, New York Times,
January 4, 1989
Transmogrify is perhaps a humorous blend of transmigrate (for
the form) and transmute (for the sense).
When I arrived at the island, of course, the deer were there. And they (she) had some thoughts about inspecting what food I might’ve brought along. Then, standing there with her, there was a galloping down the road. An otter came running. And then, like there was a sudden discovering — “hey, that’s not who I thought it was…”, a likely transmogrification — the otter turned tail and ran back up the road.
Meanwhile, she, the deer, supervised the advance, as well as the retreat…
wondering.
As did I.
Wishing all well, this Monday morning…
tsg