'Cautery' definitions:
Definition of 'cautery'
(from WordNet)
noun
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]
noun
The act of coagulating blood and destroying tissue with a hot iron or caustic agent or by freezing [syn: cautery, cauterization, cauterisation]
Definition of 'Cautery'
From: GCIDE
- 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]