Hypertext Webster Gateway: "sterilize"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Sterilize \Ster"il*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sterilized}; p.
pr. & vb. n. {Sterilizing}.] [Cf. F. st['e]riliser.]
1. To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land;
to exhaust of fertility. [R.] ``Sterilizing the earth.''
--Woodward.
2. (Biol.)
(a) To deprive of the power of reproducing; to render
incapable of germination or fecundation; to make
sterile.
(b) To destroy all spores or germs in (an organic fluid or
mixture), as by heat, so as to prevent the development
of bacterial or other organisms.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
sterilize
v 1: make free from bacteria [syn: {sterilise}]
2: make infertile; of both males and females [syn: {sterilise},
{desex}, {unsex}, {desexualize}, {fix}]
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