cautery

[ kaw-tuh-ree ]

/ ˈkɔ tə ri /

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noun, plural cau·ter·ies.

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

the process of destroying tissue with a cautery.

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Origin of cautery

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

Words nearby cautery

caustic potash, caustic soda, caustic surface, cauterant, cauterize, cautery, caution, cautionary, caution money, cautious, Cauvery

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cautery in a sentence

Monell, Bigelow, Massey, and Bartholow know electricity about the nose only as a cautery.
The Treatment of Hay Fever|George Frederick Laidlaw
If the spurting blood should cool the cautery, take another.
Old-Time Makers of Medicine|James J. Walsh
He brought in a cautery, a furnace, and other terrible instruments used then in medical practice.
Giovanni Boccaccio, a Biographical Study|Edward Hutton
Perhaps we needed a surgeon who would use knife and cautery.
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. VIII (of X) - Continental Europe II.|Various

In cautery, the area where fire is to be placed is marked with ink in the shape of a myrtle leaf.
Drawings and Pharmacy in Al-Zahrawi's 10th-Century Surgical Treatise|Sami Hamarneh

British Dictionary definitions for cautery

cautery

/ (ˈkɔːtərɪ) /

noun plural -teries

the coagulation of blood or destruction of body tissue by cauterizing

Also called: cauterant an instrument or chemical agent for cauterizing

Word Origin for cautery

C14: from Old French cautère, from Latin cautērium; see cauterize

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

Scientific definitions for cautery

cautery

[ kô′tə-rē ]

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