noun. An agent or instrument used to destroy abnormal tissue by burning, searing, or scarring, including caustic substances, electric currents, lasers, and very hot or very cold instruments.

noun. The act or process of cauterizing.

noun. A burning or searing, as of morbid flesh, by a hot iron or by caustic substances that burn, corrode, or destroy the solid parts of an animal body.

noun. The instrument or drug employed in cauterizing.

noun. 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.

noun. The iron of other agent in cauterizing.

noun. a substance or agent (as a hot iron) which cauterizes or sears by actual heat; or the burning so effected.

noun. a substance which cauterizes by chemical action; as, lunar caustic; also, the cauterizing produced by such substance.

noun. The process of using either extreme heat or extreme cold to either cut or seal body tissue.

noun. A device used for cutting or sealing body tissue.

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

noun. the act of coagulating blood and destroying tissue with a hot iron or caustic agent or by freezing