Hypertext Webster Gateway: "cautery"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
2. The iron of other agent in cauterizing.
{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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
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: {cauterant}]
2: the act of coagulating blood and destroying tissue with a
hot iron or caustic agent or by freezing [syn: {cauterization},
{cauterisation}]
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