sterilize

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Etymology tree

English sterile

Proto-Indo-European *-id-

Proto-Indo-European *-yéti

Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti

Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor.

Late Latin -izōder.

Middle French -iserbor.

Middle English -isen

English -ize

English sterilize

From sterile + -ize.

British, English, Oxford, US, transitive To deprive of the ability to procreate. If monogeny is determined exclusively by a cytoplasmic factor, then it is easy to see that the factor will either die out (if it causes arrhenogeny) or will become fixed and thereby sterilize the population (if it causes thelygeny).
British, English, Oxford, US, transitive To make unable to produce; to make unprofitable.
British, English, Oxford, US, transitive To kill, deactivate (denature), or destroy (break apart) all living, viable microorganisms and spores on a surface, in a fluid, or contained in a compound, such as culture media or a medical product. One machine in which Mr. Taylor takes special pride is a salmon canner, which engulfs a whole salmon, decapitates and decaudates it, skins it, blows out its viscera, cuts it into pieces, deposits them in the can, sterilizes them […]
British, English, Oxford, US, transitive To render a planet like Earth permanently uninhabitable to all life, including even microbes, causing their complete extinction.
British, English, Oxford, US, transitive To redact (a document), removing classified or sensitive material. […] (minus, of course, any information that might identify the agent and other operational personnel), or he might code it or "sterilize" it, and reward the foreign station chief in some other way.