Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Sterilize \Ster"il*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sterilized}; p.
   pr. & vb. n. {Sterilizing}.] [Cf. F. st['e]riliser.]
   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.

Source : WordNet®

sterilize
     v 1: make free from bacteria [syn: {sterilise}]
     2: make infertile; "in some countries, people with genetically
        transmissible disbilites are sterilized" [syn: {sterilise},
         {desex}, {unsex}, {desexualize}, {desexualise}, {fix}]