To make super clean by removing dirt, germs, and bacteria; disinfect pruning tools to avoid spreading disease.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
sterilize (verb)transitive verb
to make as - sterile
a) to cause (land) to become unfruitful
b) (1) to deprive of the power of reproducing - surgically sterilize cats and dogs
(2) to make incapable of germination
c) to make powerless or useless usually by restraining from a normal function, relation, or participation
d) to free from living microorganisms
Sterilize (Wikipedia)
Look up sterilization or sterilisation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Sterilization may refer to:
- Sterilization (microbiology), killing or inactivation of micro-organisms
- Soil steam sterilization, a farming technique that sterilizes soil with steam in open fields or greenhouses
- Sterilization (medicine) renders a human unable to reproduce
- Neutering is the surgical sterilization of animals
- Irradiation induced sterility is used in the sterile insect technique
- A chemosterilant is a chemical compound that causes sterility
- Sterilization (economics), central bank operations aimed at neutralizing foreign exchange operations' impact on domestic money supply, or offset adverse consequences of large capital flows
- A very severe enough extinction event that permanently renders a planet like Earth completely uninhabitable to even microbial life.
Sterilize (Wiktionary)
English
Alternative forms
- sterilise (non-Oxford British English)
Etymology
From sterile + -ize.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈstɛɹɪlaɪz/, /ˈstɛɹəlaɪz/
Verb
sterilize (third-person singular simple present sterilizes, present participle sterilizing, simple past and past participle sterilized) (American spelling, Oxford British English)
- (transitive) To deprive of the ability to
sanitize, disinfect, purify, decontaminate, cleanse