cautery

American  

[kaw-tuh-ree] / ˈkɔ tə ri /

noun

• cauteries
  plural

1. an escharotic substance, electric current, or hot iron used to destroy tissue.

2. the process of destroying tissue with a cautery.

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cautery British  

/ ˈkɔːtərɪ /

noun

1. the coagulation of blood or destruction of body tissue by cauterizing

2. Also called: cauterant.  an instrument or chemical agent for cauterizing

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cautery Scientific  

/ kô′tə-rē /

1. An agent or instrument used to destroy tissue, as in surgery, by burning, searing, cutting, or scarring, including caustic substances, electric currents, and lasers.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cauteries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cautery

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin cautērium < Greek kautḗrion, equivalent to kautḗr branding iron ( see cauterize) + -ion diminutive suffix

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cautery cauteries

The procedure is said to be faster than other ablation techniques like cautery or freezing, and less likely to damage the esophagus, which lies next to the atrium.

From New York Times ● Jul. 26, 2021

But President-elect Allen Buckner Kanavel, Chicago, pointed out that coagulation caused by the cautery is more likely to scatter malignant growths than to retard or destroy them.

From Time Magazine Archive

Through the second he inserts the electric cautery and a tiny surgical knife.

From Time Magazine Archive

Recognition that brain tumors may develop suddenly and rapidly, that the electric cautery knife makes possible more complete removal of brain and spinal cord tumors.

From Time Magazine Archive

He suffered greatly from headaches, which the best physicians of his day vainly endeavored to cure by the application of the actual cautery to his scalp.

From The Century of Columbus by James J. Walsh

Doctors have tried to help similar patients with cauteries and radium, but always unsuccessfully, and Mrs. Ribicoff refused these treatments.

From Time Magazine Archive

To day surgeons use scalpels and electric cauteries to excise cancers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Physic and philosophy are cultivated among the Indians, and the Chinese have some skill in medicine; but that almost entirely consists in the art of applying hot irons or cauteries.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 01 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time by Robert Kerr

These doubts which constantly assaulted him were a genuine cautery for his passion, painful and cruel, like all cauteries, but very salutary in their effects.

From The Marquis of Pe?alta (Marta y Mar?a) A Realistic Social Novel by Armando Palacio Vald?s

The wound in the shoulder is miraculously healing, without either blood-letting or cauteries.

From To Have and to Hold by Mary Johnston