Ster"il*ize (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sterilized (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sterilizing (?).] [Cf. F. st'eriliser.]
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.
© Webster 1913.