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Definition of "cautery" [cau•ter•y]

  • An agent or instrument used to destroy abnormal tissue by burning, searing, or scarring, including caustic substances, electric currents, lasers, and very hot or very cold instruments. (noun)
  • The act or process of cauterizing. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "cautery" in a sentence
  • "I set the lamp back in its place while the doctor dug in his bag and brought out a small tray and what must have been a cautery tool."
  • "Selective bipolar umbilical cord cautery and transection of anomalous parabiotic twin The patient was a 33-year-old, second pregnancy, referred at 21 weeks gestational age for pregnancy complicated by a monochorionic, monoamniotic (single shared placenta, single shared amniotic sac) twin pregnancy, with one twin reported to have multiple congenital anomalies."
  • "In your case, the cone biopsy done by the LEEP method, which uses cautery to cut out the tissue, showed normal margins, free of abnormal cells."