Lexic.us

Definition of Caustic

1. Noun. Any chemical substance that burns or destroys living tissue.

2. Adjective. Harsh or corrosive in tone. "A vitriolic critique"

3. Adjective. Of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action.

Definition of Caustic

1. a. Capable of destroying the texture of anything or eating away its substance by chemical action; burning; corrosive; searing.

2. n. Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.

Definition of Caustic

1. Adjective. Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue ¹

2. Adjective. (context: of language etc) sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, sarcastic ¹

3. Noun. Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic. ¹

4. Noun. (context: optics computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object. ¹

5. Noun. (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve. ¹

6. Noun. (context: informal chemistry) caustic soda ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Caustic

1. a corrosive substance [n -S]

Medical Definition of Caustic

1. An escharotic or corrosive agent. Synonym: cauterant. Origin: L. Causticus, Gr. Kaustikos This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology (11 Mar 2008)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Caustic

causes of cancer causest causeth causeway causewayed causewaying causeways causey causeyed causeymaker

causeymakers causeys causidical causimomancy causing caustic (current term) caustic alkali caustic curve caustic curves caustic lime

caustic potash caustic remark caustic soda caustic sodas caustic sulphite caramel caustic surface caustic surfaces caustical caustically causticities

Literary usage of Caustic

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences by Southern Society for Clinical Investigation (U.S.) (1844)
"Oases in the first stage, that is, within four days of the commencement of the disease, treated hy the caustic injection. Cured hy a single injection ..."

2. A German-English Dictionary for Chemists by Austin McDowell Patterson (1917)
"ätzend, pa caustic, corrosive. —ätzend machen, render caustic, ... open with caustic. Aufbau, m. building up, synthesis; building, erection; ..."

3. The Mineral Industry (1899)
"The amount actually marketed in 1898 as soda ash •Was 273000 tons; as bicarbonate, 34000; and as caustic, 48000. Soda and Boda products were manufactured in ..."

4. Pharmaceutical Journal by Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (1857)
"800 cubic centimetres of this caustic soda would decompose 122 grammes of crystallized chloride of barium, or b".0 '. grammes of nitrate of barytes. ..."

5. The Collected Mathematical Papers of Arthur Cayley by Arthur Cayley (1889)
"1), that in certain cases the caustic by refraction of a circle is identical with the ... The demonstration is obtained by means of the secondary caustic, ..."

6. The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review by Isaac Smith Homans, William Buck Dana (1860)
"Tlii'ie were several importations, all since the passage of the tariff net of 1857, and entered as caustic soda, paying a duty of four per cent ad valorem. ..."

Other Resources: