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
Then coal and ore were arranged in heaps and in successive layers, as the charcoal-burner does with the wood which he wishes to carbonize.
From The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
The signal can be exceptionally faint because conventional carbon ink and carbonized papyrus can look very similar to X rays.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
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
None of these substances were found outside the skull, in the volcanic ash in which the carbonized, skeletal remains were buried.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2025
This arises from the destructive distillation of imperfectly carbonized organic matter.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various
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
Good results are obtained by packing the steel in iron boxes or tubes, much as for case-hardening or carbonizing, using the same materials.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Fred H. (Fred Herbert) Colvin
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
Dodds process, the, for carbonizing the heads of iron rails, 186.
From Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie by John Charles Van Dyke
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