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Webster 1913 Edition
Sterilize
Ster′il-ize
,Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Sterilized
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Sterilizing
.] [Cf. F.
stériliser
.] 1.
To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility.
[R.]
“Sterilizing the earth.” Woodward.
Webster 1828 Edition
Sterilize
STERILIZE
, v.t.1.
To make barren; to impoverish, as land; to exhaust of fertility; as, to sterilize soil or land. [Little used.]2.
To deprive of fecundity, or the power of producing young. [Little used.]