STERILIZE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Sterilize

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/stˈɛrəlˌaɪz/ Listen

verb

Sterilize v. t. (past & past part. sterilized; pres. part. sterilizing)

To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility. (R.) "Sterilizing the earth."

(Biol.) To deprive of the power of reproducing; to render incapable of germination or fecundation; to make sterile.

(Microbiology, Medicine) To destroy all spores or germs in (an organic fluid or mixture) or on (a medical instrument), as by heat, so as to prevent contamination by bacteria or other organisms. A common method of sterilization in laboratories and medical facilities is to heat a liquid sample or an instrument in an autoclave.

To destroy all spores or germs on (a surface) by wetting with an antiseptic liquid, such as an alcoholic solution.

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Etymology of 'Sterilize'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sterilize" Quotes from Famous Books

... and more of the wonderful things electricity will do, we are brought into contact with problems which directly interest the home. Sanitation attracts our attention. Why cannot electricity act as an agent to purify our drinking water, to sterilize sewage and to arrest offensive odors? We must, therefore, learn something about ...

— Electricity for Boys • J. S. Zerbe

... used about the confinement must have been carefully sterilized in advance. The best way to sterilize the water is by boiling it in a large wash-boiler; whatever vessel is used must be scrupulously clean, and ought to be new. The vessel is covered over, and the water is allowed to boil for half an hour; it is then, still covered, ...

— The Four Epochs of Woman's Life • Anna M. Galbraith

... this a religious, purifying movement. We are leaving off drink, we are trying to rid India of the curse of untouchability. We are trying to throw off foreign tinsel splendour and by reverting to the spinning wheel reviving the ancient and the poetic simplicity of life. We hope thereby to sterilize the existing harmful institution. I ask Your Royal Highness as an Englishman to study this movement and its possibilities for the Empire and the world. We are at war with nothing that is good in the world. In protecting Islam ...

— Freedom's Battle - Being a Comprehensive Collection of Writings and Speeches on the Present Situation • Mahatma Gandhi

... healthy eye is harmless; pus bearing the gonococci excites the most intense inflammation. Similar suppurative action in the cornea is often caused by infection of cocci. The proof of causation may be found in the fact that the most effective cure now practiced for such suppuration is to sterilize them by the actual cautery. Rosenbach says that he knows six distinct microbes which are capable of exciting suppuration in man. Their activity may be productive of a poison, or putrefactive alkaloid, ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 787, January 31, 1891 • Various

... fluid escapes when the trocar is withdrawn, the dose of the fluid selected is injected through the canula, which is then withdrawn. An important point is that the operation must be absolutely aseptic; great care is taken to sterilize thoroughly the instruments, site of operation and fluid used. The patient is placed in that position which will yield the best and safest analgesia for the operation; it is essential, however, that the patient's head ...

— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia