cauterize
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cauterizesimple
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cauterizessimple
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have cauterizedperfect
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has cauterizedperfect
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am cauterizingprogressive
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are cauterizingprogressive
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is cauterizingprogressive
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have been cauterizingperfect progressive
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has been cauterizingperfect progressive
Past
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cauterizedsimple
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had cauterizedperfect
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was cauterizingprogressive
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were cauterizingprogressive
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had been cauterizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
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
Explanation
To cauterize is to seal off a wound or incision by burning it or freezing it, usually with a hot iron, electricity, or chemicals. Metaphorically, cauterize means to make less sensitive to feelings and emotions. Cauterize is usually a medical term. In surgery, using an electrical tool to cauterize the incision seals off blood vessels, resulting in a cleaner operation that heals more easily. Extreme cold, electricity, and chemicals are also used outside the body cauterize, or "burn off," warts and vessels that cause nosebleeds.
Vocabulary lists containing cauterize
1984
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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:
If any bleeding occurs during the polyp removal, doctors can cauterize the wound to seal it, but this method creates a scar that may delay the healing, and result in additional complications.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2024
"And then when things really come to a head, they try to cauterize the wound at the lowest level possible."
From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2023
Where life wounds, art and fellowship can heal, or at the very least, cauterize into the most expressive of scars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2022
And there has to be a way to sort of underline that, to take this episode—if we’re lucky enough to be able to—and sort of cauterize it.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2020
“Not bad at all. Looks like that sneeze helped you cauterize the rest of the capillaries. You might make a good doctor someday.”
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
Following Dr. Graham on his medical rounds, they witness no heroic acts of surgery—he cauterizes a persistent sore on someone’s face; he presides at the death bed of a longtime patient and friend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
Debate — philosophically and physiologically — makes us human, whereas dogma cauterizes our potential as a species.
From New York Times ● Jun. 8, 2018
He cauterizes our indulgences in pity or piety: it is impossible, he reminds us, to feel pity for the self-pitying.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 11, 2017
The critic analyzes and cauterizes, coolly judging a film’s manipulation of its audience.
From Time ● Jan. 12, 2012
When the zany in the pantomime hides the red-hot poker in his pocket, he cauterizes his person.
From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 by Various
The private-credit industry sprang up in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to fill lending gaps left by cauterized commercial banks.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
He had a blood vessel cauterized in his nose and began checking the air quality each morning to see if it was safe to go outside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2024
Once they found the ulcer, they cauterized it and gave him two pints of blood.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 11, 2023
A Swiss government-backed buyout of Credit Suisse by UBS has cauterized the immediate concern over European financial stability.
From Reuters ● Mar. 21, 2023
He also concluded I would need to schedule an appointment to have the inside of my nasal passages cauterized in order to burn away the number of leaky capillaries and stop the bleeding.
From "Dead End in Norvelt" by Jack Gantos
You’re cauterizing it, and you’re putting special clamps on the skin that squeeze down and prevent flow from coming out.
From Slate ● Apr. 27, 2017
Dr. Ronald Pelletier removed Jenkins’ kidney early Tuesday morning after more than an hour of snipping, cauterizing and clipping.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 4, 2017
Just as cauterizing a wound stops bleeding, they claim that lighting up hair makes it smoother-looking.
From Time ● Jul. 15, 2015
As they operate the remote controls, they no longer feel tissues when cutting, cauterizing and suturing.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 8, 2012
That wasn’t the beginning—this wasn’t where my anger started—but it was a cauterizing moment I would never forget.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
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.