cauterize

• cauterise

From Middle French cauteriser, from Late Latin cauterizāre (“to burn with a hot iron”), from Ancient Greek καυτηριάζω (kautēriázō, “to brand”), from καυτήρ (kautḗr, “branding iron”), from καίειν (kaíein, “to burn”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɔːtəɹaɪz/
  • (US) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰɒɾəɹaɪz], [ˈkʰɑɾəɹaɪz], [ˈkʰɔɾəɹaɪz]

cauterize (third-person singular simple present cauterizes, present participle cauterizing, simple past and past participle cauterized)

1. (chiefly US spelling) To burn, sear, or freeze tissue using a hot iron, electric current or a caustic agent.
   • 1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, [...] To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, [...], London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, OCLC 745299684, page 254:

     […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd."