STERILIZE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... thicknesses of cheese cloth, wrung out in hot water. By this method there is no danger of scorching. Fats heated at a low temperature also keep better than those melted at higher temperature. After the fat is rendered, it should be slowly reheated to sterilize it and make sure it is free from moisture. The bits of tissue strained out, commonly known as cracklings, may be used for shortening purposes or may be added to cornmeal which is to be used as fried ...

— Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them (1918) • C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss

... will be fatal." Lorelei was horrified. "Use nothing but top milk and barley-water. Be sure to sterilize the bottles and soak ...

— The Auction Block • Rex Beach

... The mother should sterilize the wound as thoroughly as possible. This may be done by using pure hydrogen peroxide. A little piece of absorbent cotton is wound round the end of a tooth-pick or match, dipped in the peroxide and the incision thoroughly rubbed clean. ...

— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... living in comparative ease and comfort on the rental of their lands. Nearly everywhere there is a townward movement for the purpose of securing school advantages for the children. All this tends to sterilize the open country and to lower its social status." The Commission points out that the new addition of what is likely to be a stationary element, whose economic interests lie elsewhere, to the citizenship of the town, may create there a new social problem, while the tenant in the country will ...

— The Rural Life Problem of the United States - Notes of an Irish Observer • Horace Curzon Plunkett