Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To burn or sear with a cautery.
  • transitive verb To deaden, as to feelings or moral scruples; callous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To burn or sear with fire or a hot iron, or with caustics, as morbid flesh.
  • To sear, in a figurative sense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To burn or sear with a cautery or caustic.
  • transitive verb To sear, as the conscience.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To burn, sear, or freeze tissue using a hot iron, electric current or a caustic agent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb burn, sear, or freeze (tissue) using a hot iron or electric current or a caustic agent
  • verb make insensitive or callous; deaden feelings or morals

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English cauterizen, from Late Latin cautērizāre, to cauterize, brand, from Latin cautērium, cautery; see cautery.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French cauteriser, from Late Latin cauterizare ("to burn with a hot iron"), from Ancient Greek καυτηριάζω (kautēriazō, "to brand"), from καυτήρ (kautēr, "branding iron"), from καίειν (kaiein, "to burn").

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Examples

  • Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to "cauterize" the records of potentially embarrassing information.

    Nice Deb 2009

  • Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to "cauterize" the records of potentially embarrassing information.

    The Absurd Report 2009

  • "Sources who tracked the investigation tell Newsmax that the main target of the breach was the Obama passport file, and that the contractor accessed the file in order to 'cauterize' the records of potentially embarrassing information.

    Latest Articles 2010

  • He was using it to cauterize little capillaries that were sprouting in the inner chest.

    Manifesting Michelangelo Joseph Pierce Farrell 2011

  • We must get stuff out into the open, tear the scab off this wound, apply a stinging astringent to it, and cauterize it with a blowtorch.

    Silpa Kovvali: Tiger Brother: An Interview With Wesley Yang Silpa Kovvali 2011

  • He was using it to cauterize little capillaries that were sprouting in the inner chest.

    Manifesting Michelangelo Joseph Pierce Farrell 2011

  • For though I may have been able to cheat it, in the end the comfort gained could well cauterize the wound of love, and limp the iron endurance required of a courier.

    Mandala « A Fly in Amber 2010

  • The rain cannot cauterize the burning, the flames that engulf my skin.

    ASTRUM EXURO • by Rhiannon Morgan 2009

  • We must get stuff out into the open, tear the scab off this wound, apply a stinging astringent to it, and cauterize it with a blowtorch.

    Silpa Kovvali: Tiger Brother: An Interview With Wesley Yang Silpa Kovvali 2011

  • We must get stuff out into the open, tear the scab off this wound, apply a stinging astringent to it, and cauterize it with a blowtorch.

    Silpa Kovvali: Tiger Brother: An Interview With Wesley Yang Silpa Kovvali 2011

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