v. Also -ise. [= F. cautériser, ad. late L. cautērizāre to burn or brand with a hot iron, f. cautērium, ad. Gr. καυτήριον branding-iron.]
1. Med. trans. To burn or sear with a hot iron or a caustic.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. After that they be cauterised ye must apply on the sayd places oyle of Roses.
1623. Massinger, Bondman, I. iii. Old festered sores Must be lanced to the quick, and cauterized.
1735. Somerville, Chase, IV. 284. Quick urge it home Into the recent Sore, and cauterize The Wound.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 340. The acetic acid … is … so caustic, that it corrodes and cauterizes the skin.
1865. Public Opinion, 28 Jan., 96. The boy’s wound was cauterized and he is doing well.
fig. 1824–9. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), II. 222/2. The unsoundness of doctrine is not cut off nor cauterised; the professor is.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. 39. To suppose that he could cauterize out heresy.
b. absol.
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., II. 77. Thys water … wyl cauterise like an whote yron.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., xxvi. 263. Whether he cauterize or foment, he is the same Physitian.
† 2. To brand with a hot iron. Obs.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Cauterizado, marked with a hot yron, or cauterised.
1684. Contempl. St. Man, II. vi. (1692), 191. Fugitive Slaves are Marked and Cauterized with Burning Irons.
fig. 1609. Daniel, Civ. Warres, VIII. lxxxiii. Now he must Bring home his Reputation Cauteris’d With th’ idle Mark of serving Others Lust.
1619. J. Taylor (Water P.), Sco. Baseness, Wks. II. 36. I will Satyrize, cauterize, and stigmatize all the whole kennell of curres.
3. fig. To ‘sear,’ deaden, render insensible (the conscience, feelings, etc.). In allusion to 1 Tim. iv. 2. κεκαυτηριασ μένων τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν ‘having their conscience seared with a hot iron.’
1586. J. Hooker, Girald. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 117/1. His conscience was so cauterised.
1625. Bacon, Ess. Atheism. Hypocrites; which are euer Handling Holy Things, but without Feeling. So as they must needs be cauterized in the End.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, II. IV. 141. When once conscience is by frequent repetition of sins, cauterised, dispirited, and made senselesse.
1807. Southey, Espriella’s Lett. (1814), II. 103. Custom soon cauterizes human sympathy.
1874. Pusey, Lent. Serm., 139. The true conscience, until it is cauterised, will … rebel against the false.
