cauterise

• cauterize (American, Oxford British English)

cauterise (third-person singular simple present cauterises, present participle cauterising, simple past and past participle cauterised)

1. To burn, sear, or freeze tissue using a hot iron, electric current or a caustic agent.
   • 1732, George Smith, Institutiones Chirurgicæ: or, Principles of Surgery, [...] To which is Annexed, a Chirurgical Dispensatory, [...], London: Printed [by William Bowyer] for Henry Lintot, at the Cross-Keys against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet, →OCLC, page 254:

     […] Lanfrank takes Notice of Tract. 3. Doct. 3. cap. 18. ſaying, "I have ſeen many who being full of Humours, have made an Iſſue under the Knee, before due Purgation had been premis'd; whence, by reaſon of the too great Defluxion of Humours, the Legs tumified, ſo that the cauterized Place corrupted, and a Cancer (or rather cacoethic Ulcer) was thereby made, with which great Difficulty was cur'd."

   • 1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 198:

     Just when you think you are extricating yourself, just when you think you are cauterised and ready to leave, it resurfaces. Once you've been infected, you're never again completely free.

• cauteries