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®
sterilized
adj 1: made free from live bacteria or other microorganisms;
"sterilized instruments" [syn: {antiseptic}, {sterilised}]
2: made infertile [syn: {sterilised}]