Definition of Sterilize

1. Verb. Make free from bacteria.

Exact synonyms: Sterilise
Specialized synonyms: Autoclave
Generic synonyms: Disinfect
Derivative terms: Sterilisation, Steriliser, Sterilization, Sterilizer

2. Verb. Make infertile. "In some countries, people with genetically transmissible disabilites are sterilized"

Definition of Sterilize

1. v. t. To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility.

Definition of Sterilize

1. Verb. To deprive a male or female the ability to procreate. ¹

2. Verb. To make unable to produce. To make unprofitable. ¹

3. Verb. (biology) To kill, deactivate (denature), or destroy (break apart) all living, viable microorganisms and spores that would be on a surface, in a fluid, or contained in a compound, such as culture media or a medical product. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Sterilize

1. [v -IZED, -IZING, -IZES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Sterilize

sterileness
sterilisation
sterilisations
sterilise
sterilised
steriliser
sterilisers
sterilises
sterilising
sterilities
sterility
sterilizable
sterilizated
sterilization
sterilizations
sterilize (current term)
sterilized
sterilizer
sterilizers
sterilizes
sterilizing
sterino
sterinos
sterlet
sterlets
sterling
sterling(a)
sterling area
sterling bloc
sterling silver

Literary usage of Sterilize

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

1. Agriculture: A Text for the School and the Farm by Oscar Herman Benson, George Herbert Betts (1916)
"If using hot water bath outfit sterilize 90 minutes, if using water-seal outfit sterilize 75 minutes, if using a 5-pound steam pressure outfit sterilize 60 ..."

2. Canada Lancet (1891)
"To sterilize INSTRUMENTS WITHOUT DULLING THEM.—Von Bergmann's method.—To render instruments perfectly aseptic, and to preserve the cutting edges from ..."

3. Medical Record by George Frederick Shrady, Thomas Lathrop Stedman (1890)
"... this ground measures to stamp out bovine tuberculosis, and to sterilize milk before it is stamped out, are to be recommended. ARE MUTILATIONS INHERITED? ..."

4. The Boston Cooking-school Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer (1896)
"While filling jars place them on a cloth wrung out of hot water. To sterilize Jars. Wash jars and fill with cold water. Set in a kettle on a trivet, ..."

5. Laboratory Manual for Human Physiology: Experimental Studies in Hygiene by Carl Gottfried Hartman (1914)
"How to sterilize the dishes. Apparatus and material; Twenty Petri dishes (Fig. 24) or flat bottles which it is desired to sterilize; cotton for plugs in the ..."

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