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Thesaurus: sterilize

To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility.

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  1. v. t. To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility.
  2. v. t. To deprive of the power of reproducing; to render incapable of germination or fecundation; to make sterile.
  3. v. t. 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.
  4. v. make free from bacteria
  5. v. make infertile
  6. 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.
  7. v:100 v. make free from bacteria v. make infertile