to burn, sear, or chemically destroy tissue, usually to stop bleeding or prevent infection.
From Greek kauter (burning) and Latin cauterizare. The practice dates back thousands of years—Greek and Roman doctors cauterized wounds to seal blood vessels and stop infection.
Before modern antibiotics and anesthesia, cauterizing was the only way to stop massive bleeding—medieval battlefield surgeons would literally brand wounds with hot irons, which sounds horrible but actually worked and saved lives.
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