Antiseptic
[æntɪ'septɪk] or [,æntɪ'sɛptɪk]
Definition
(noun.) a substance that destroys micro-organisms that carry disease without harming body tissues.
(adj.) devoid of objectionable language; 'lyrics as antiseptic as Sunday School' .
(adj.) clean and honest; 'antiseptic financial practices' .
(adj.) thoroughly clean and free of or destructive to disease-causing organisms; 'doctors in antiseptic green coats'; 'the antiseptic effect of alcohol'; 'it is said that marjoram has antiseptic qualities' .
(adj.) freeing from error or corruption; 'the antiseptic effect of sturdy criticism' .
Typed by Lesley--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Alt. of Antiseptical
(n.) A substance which prevents or retards putrefaction, or destroys, or protects from, putrefactive organisms; as, salt, carbolic acid, alcohol, cinchona.
Checker: Valerie
Definition
adj. and n. counteracting putrefaction and analogous fermentive changes: preventing moral decay.—adv. Antisept′ically.
Inputed by Harvey
Examples
- Like considerations would apply to railways, antiseptic surgery, or friction matches. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The antiseptic treatment of wounds, by which the long and exhausting suppuration is avoided, is among the most notable of the latter. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Out of the knowledge of disease germs has grown the great era of antiseptic surgery, inaugurated by Sir Joseph Lister, about 1865. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- They understood the virtue of extreme dryness in the exercise of their antiseptic art. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
Inputed by Alex