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.

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