Search Result for "cautery": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (2)

1. an instrument or substance used to destroy tissue for medical reasons (eg removal of a wart) by burning it with a hot iron or an electric current or a caustic or by freezing it;
[syn: cautery, cauterant]

2. the act of coagulating blood and destroying tissue with a hot iron or caustic agent or by freezing;
[syn: cautery, cauterization, cauterisation]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cautery \Cau"ter*y\, n.; pl. Cauteries. [L. cauterium, Gr. ?. See Cauter.] 1. (Med.) A burning or searing, as of morbid flesh, with a hot iron, or by application of a caustic that will burn, corrode, or destroy animal tissue. [1913 Webster] 2. The iron of other agent in cauterizing. [1913 Webster] Actual cautery, a substance or agent (as a hot iron) which cauterizes or sears by actual heat; or the burning so effected. Potential cautery, a substance which cauterizes by chemical action; as, lunar caustic; also, the cauterizing produced by such substance. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

cautery n 1: an instrument or substance used to destroy tissue for medical reasons (eg removal of a wart) by burning it with a hot iron or an electric current or a caustic or by freezing it [syn: cautery, cauterant] 2: the act of coagulating blood and destroying tissue with a hot iron or caustic agent or by freezing [syn: cautery, cauterization, cauterisation]