Caustic

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Caustic \Caus"tic\, Caustical \Caus"tic*al\, a. [L. caustucs,
     Ge. ?, fr. ? to burn. Cf. {Calm}, {Ink}.]
     1. Capable of destroying the texture of anything or eating
        away its substance by chemical action; burning; corrosive;
        searing.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Severe; satirical; sharp; as, a caustic remark.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Caustic curve} (Optics), a curve to which the ray of light,
        reflected or refracted by another curve, are tangents, the
        reflecting or refracting curve and the luminous point
        being in one plane.
  
     {Caustic lime}. See under {Lime}.
  
     {Caustic potash}, {Caustic soda} (Chem.), the solid
        hydroxides potash, {KOH}, and soda, {NaOH}, or solutions
        of the same.
  
     {Caustic silver}, nitrate of silver, lunar caustic.
  
     {Caustic surface} (Optics), a surface to which rays reflected
        or refracted by another surface are tangents. Caustic
        curves and surfaces are called catacaustic when formed by
        reflection, and diacaustic when formed by refraction.
  
     Syn: Stinging; cutting; pungent; searching.
          [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Caustic \Cau"stic\, n. [L. causticum (sc. medicamentum). See
     {Caustic}, a.]
     1. Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other
        organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by
        chemical action; an escharotic.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Optics) A caustic curve or caustic surface.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  caustic
       adj 1: harsh or corrosive in tone; "an acerbic tone piercing
              otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid
              comments"; "her acrid remarks make her many enemies";
              "bitter words"; "blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes
              about political assassination, talk-show hosts and
              medical ethics"; "a sulfurous denunciation" [syn: {acerb},
               {acerbic}, {acid}, {acrid}, {bitter}, {blistering}, {sulfurous},
               {sulphurous}, {venomous}, {virulent}, {vitriolic}]
       2: of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of
          destroying or eating away by chemical action [syn: {corrosive},
           {erosive}, {vitriolic}]
       n : any chemical substance that burns or destroys living tissue

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  136 Moby Thesaurus words for "caustic":
     Rabelaisian, acerb, acerbate, acerbic, acid, acidic, acidulent,
     acidulous, acrid, acrimonious, actual cautery, acute, amaroidal,
     angry, antagonistic, antipathetic, arc, asperous, astringent,
     belligerent, biting, bitter, bitter as gall, bow, brand,
     brand iron, branding iron, brisk, burning, catacaustic, catenary,
     cauter, cauterant, cauterizer, cautery, choleric, circle, clashing,
     coarse, colliding, conchoid, conflicting, corroding, corrosive,
     crisp, critical, crook, curl, curve, cutting, cynical, despiteful,
     destructive, diacaustic, discontented, double-edged, dry, edged,
     electrocautery, ellipse, embittered, escharotic, feeling evil,
     festoon, fierce, full of hate, hard, harsh, hateful, hook, hostile,
     hot iron, hyperbola, incisive, ironic, irritating, keen, lituus,
     lunar caustic, malevolent, malicious, malignant, mordacious,
     mordant, moxa, nose-tickling, out of humor, out of sorts,
     out of temper, parabola, penetrating, piercing, piquant, pithy,
     poignant, potential cautery, pungent, quarrelsome, radium,
     rancorous, rankled, repugnant, resentful, resenting, rigorous,
     rough, salty, sarcastic, sardonic, satiric, scathing, scorching,
     set against, severe, sharp, sinus, sore, sour, spiteful, splenetic,
     stabbing, stewing, stinging, strident, stringent, succinct, tart,
     terse, tracery, trenchant, vehement, venomous, violent, virulent,
     vitriolic, withering