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.
See Examples For:
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
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
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
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
He carbonized paper and wood of various kinds—in fact, everything he could find that would yield a carbon filament.
From The Story of Great Inventions by Elmer Ellsworth Burns
The only thing that should limit the rate of cooling from the carbonizing heat is distortion.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Fred H. (Fred Herbert) Colvin
The Harvey process of making armor consists in taking an all-steel plate and carbonizing the face.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 803, May 23, 1891 by Various
Twenty point carbon, such as is used for carbonizing purposes is 0.20 per cent.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Fred H. (Fred Herbert) Colvin
They need the weight of carbonizing years; Yet, how they glitter after these have past!
From Montezuma An Epic on the Origin and Fate of the Aztec Nation by Hiram Hoyt Richmond
Instead of extracting all the gelatinous matter from degreased bones, the practice of extracting about one half and carbonizing the residue is frequently adopted.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 2 "Bohemia" to "Borgia, Francis" by Various
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.
