cauterize

[kaw-tuh-rahyz]

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verb (used with object), cau·ter·ized, cau·ter·iz·ing.

to burn with a hot iron, electric current, fire, or a caustic, especially for curative purposes; treat with a cautery.

Also especially British, cau·ter·ise.

Origin of cauterize

1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin cautērizāre to brand, equivalent to cautēr- (< Greek kautḗr branding iron, equivalent to kau-, variant stem of kaíein to burn (cf. caustic), + -tēr agent suffix) + -izāre -ize

Related formscau·ter·i·za·tion, nounun·cau·ter·ized, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for cauterize

sear, burn, singe

Examples from the Web for cauterize

Historical Examples of cauterize

He can take nothing away, but only cauterize and neutralize, he says, so why not let him try?
Death of a Spaceman
Walter M. Miller
I had no caustic with me, so I determined to cauterize it with boiling grease.
Sport in Abyssinia
Dermot Mayo
Besides this, they also bleed the patient and cauterize the wound.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, June 1899
Various
Well, I offered to cauterize it with the poker in the office stove.
Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress
George Bernard Shaw
Take care, he says, not to cauterize the nerves in the neighborhood, for this will add a new ailment to the patient's affection.
Old-Time Makers of Medicine
James J. Walsh

British Dictionary definitions for cauterize

cauterize

cauterise

verb

(tr) (esp in the treatment of a wound) to burn or sear (body tissue) with a hot iron or caustic agent

Derived Formscauterization or cauterisation, noun

Word Origin for cauterize

C14: from Old French cauteriser, from Late Latin cautērizāre, from cautērium branding iron, from Greek kautērion, from kaiein to burn

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for cauterize

c.1400, from Old French cauterisier, from Late Latin cauterizare "to burn or brand with a hot iron," from Greek kauteriazein, from kauter "burning or branding iron," from kaiein "to burn" (see caustic). Related: Cauterized; cauterizing.

cauterize in Medicine