v. Forms: 6 siccatrize, 7 cicatrice, 6– -ise, -ize. [ad. mod.L. cicatrizare, It. cicatrizzare, f. F. cicatrise-r, -izer, in 16th c. cicatricer, ad. L. cicātrīcāre to scar over (a wound), f. cicātrīc-em scar.
(In Fr., It., mod.L., and Eng., assimilated to verbs in -izāre, -iser, -IZE, as if short for cicatricize.)]
1. trans. To heal (a wound, sore, ulcer, etc.) by inducing a cicatrice or scar; to skin over.
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., I. x. 6. Medicines which are to be vsed to cicatrize an vlcer.
1642. J. Steer, trans. Exp. Chyrurg., x. 45. After the Escar is fallen, mundifie, incarnate, and cicatrice the Vlcer.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 55. Before the skin was cicatrized.
1856. Thackeray, Christmas Bks. (1872), 21. But time has cicatrised the wounded heart.
2. intr. (said of the wound, sore, etc.) To become healed by the formation of a cicatrice.
1582. Hester, Secr. Phiorav., I. iv. 5. Whiche [oleum] … warmeth the place that is broke, and helpeth it to siccatrize.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXII. xv. 213. Untill the wounds doe cicatrice, and be whole and even againe.
1861. T. Graham, Pract. Med., 289. The cavity cicatrizes.
1866. Spectator, 10 Feb., 157/1. Of all the local wounds dealt by the Federal power, this … would be the latest to cicatrize.
3. trans. To mark with scars; to scar. Also fig.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais (1737), V. 231. When angry Mars Burgundia cicatris’d.
1884. Stevenson, New Arab. Nts., 242. The face of the links was cicatrised with little patches of burnt furze.
1885. Athenæum, 15 Aug., 211/3. Both sexes cicatrize their arms … with small spots by means of red-hot stones.
Hence Cicatrized ppl. a., Cicatrizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1673), 423. The fat of these Beasts … if the Ulcers are corrupt and rotten … doth bring them to cicatrising.
1610. Markham, Masterp., I. x. 27. Cicatrizing and dry simples.
1670. Moral State Eng., 54 (T.). The Apothecary, or Chirurgeon giveth with a cruel Bill, the lately cicatrized wound, a new gash.
a. 1793. J. Hunter, Treat. on Blood, etc. (1794), 184. The cicatrizing skin.
1805. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 506. The cicatrizing of a wound.
1884. De Bary’s Phaner., 473. The undulated course of the woody fibres, which appears on cicatrised wounds.
Cicatrize, obs. form of CICATRICE.
