STERILIZE

sterilize. Sterilize, v.t. to make barren or unfruitful

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Ster″il‐ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sterilized (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sterilizing (?).] [[Cf. F. stériliser.]] 1. 1. To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility. “Sterilizing the earth.” Woodward.
2. 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.