Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Potential \Po*ten"tial\, a. [Cf. F. potentiel. See {Potency}.]
   1. Being potent; endowed with energy adequate to a result;
      efficacious; influential. [Obs.] ``And hath in his effect
      a voice potential.'' --Shak.

   2. Existing in possibility, not in actuality. ``A potential
      hero.'' --Carlyle.

            Potential existence means merely that the thing may
            be at ome time; actual existence, that it now is.
                                                  --Sir W.
                                                  Hamilton.

   {Potential cautery}. See under {Cautery}.

   {Potential energy}. (Mech.) See the Note under {Energy}.

   {Potential mood}, or {mode} (Gram.), that form of the verb
      which is used to express possibility, liberty, power,
      will, obligation, or necessity, by the use of may, can,
      must, might, could, would, or should; as, I may go; he can
      write.

Cautery \Cau"ter*y\, n.; pl. {Cauteries}. [L. cauterium, Gr. ?.
   See {Cauter}.]
   1. (Med.) A burning or searing, as of morbid flesh, with a
      hot iron, or by application of a caustic that will burn,
      corrode, or destroy animal tissue.

   2. The iron of other agent in cauterizing.

   {Actual cautery}, a substance or agent (as a hot iron) which
      cauterizes or sears by actual heat; or the burning so
      effected.

   {Potential cautery}, a substance which cauterizes by chemical
      action; as, lunar caustic; also, the cauterizing produced
      by such substance.