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
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 Dyer, Frank Lewis
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 Manly, Harold P. (Harold Phillips)
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
This is the night-corpse,–the scorified, carbonized man,–into such stiff lumps are conscious beings fastened and compelled to turn them round.
From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. II A Biography by Jean Paul
What is the best mode of carbonizing wood for the purpose of gunpowder?
From James Cutbush An American Chemist, 1788-1823 by Smith, Edgar Fahs
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 Colvin, Fred H. (Fred Herbert)
In the case of the camshaft, it is not possible to quench directly from the carbonizing heat because of distortion and therefore excessive breakage during straightening operations.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Colvin, Fred H. (Fred Herbert)
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 Colvin, Fred H. (Fred Herbert)
The work is constantly and uniformly exposed to a clean carbonizing atmosphere instead of partially spent carbonaceous solids which may give off very complex compounds of phosphorus, sulphur, carbon and nitrogen.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Colvin, Fred H. (Fred Herbert)
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.
