carbonize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to char (organic matter) until it forms carbon.
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to coat or enrich with carbon.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to turn or be turned into carbon as a result of heating, fossilization, chemical treatment, etc
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(tr) to enrich or coat (a substance) with carbon
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(intr) to react or unite with carbon
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of carbonize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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With the right equipment, we all have the ability to sous vide, slap chop, air fry, spiralize, carbonize and even slice our own bananas.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2014
Just the right mixture will neither burn nor carbonize and is said to be a "neutral" flame.
From Oxy-Acetylene Welding and Cutting Electric, Forge and Thermit Welding together with related methods and materials used in metal working and the oxygen process for removal of carbon by Harold P. (Harold Phillips) Manly
When the dust thus produced begins to carbonize, the pressure and velocity are increased.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 392, July 7, 1883 by Various
Of course, the method employed to carbonize the materials is suspectible of variation, but the scientific principles involved are unchangeable, viz.:
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 601, July 9, 1887 by Various
He began to carbonize everything in nature that he could lay hands on.
From Edison, His Life and Inventions by Frank Lewis Dyer
His winning edge was the carbonized bamboo filament he pioneered shortly after his initial 1879 breakthrough, providing the longevity needed to turn a novelty into a utility.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Later, she drives through a part of the forest that burned the year before to see “mile upon mile of carbonized trees and denuded earth, a now-familiar scene of extinguished life.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2025
"The peculiar preservation of Tridentinosaurus had puzzled experts for decades. Now, it all makes sense. What it was described as carbonized skin, is just paint."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 16, 2024
“When you see black, that means it is charred, burned; it’s carbonized, and we have a big problem,” he says.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 15, 2023
When a battery has been over-heated by overcharging or other causes, and the hot acid has rotted, burned and carbonized the separators, Fig.
From The Automobile Storage Battery Its Care And Repair by Otto A. Witte
No investigation has ever been made of possible methods for preventing the oils from carbonizing at the higher temperatures, and the properties of explosive mixtures of oil vapors and air have not been studied.
From Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXX, Dec. 1910 Federal Investigations of Mine Accidents, Structural Materials and Fuels. Paper No. 1171 by Herbert M. Wilson
This system shows a greater economy in the cost of carbonizing the coal, but the large outlay and the wear and tear of the mechanical appliances involved have so far prevented its very general adoption.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 4 "G" to "Gaskell, Elizabeth" by Various
What is the best mode of carbonizing wood for the purpose of gunpowder?
From James Cutbush An American Chemist, 1788-1823 by Edgar Fahs Smith
The pins are then allowed to cool slowly from the carbonizing heat, after which the hole is finish-machined and the pin cut to length.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Fred H. (Fred Herbert) Colvin
The spent gases are vented to insure the greatest speed in carbonizing.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Fred H. (Fred Herbert) Colvin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
