Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Caustic

Caus′tic, Caus′tic·al, a. [L. caustucs, Ge. καυστικός, fr. καίειν to burn. Cf. Calm, Ink.] 1. Capable of destroying the texture of anything or eating away its substance by chemical action; burning; corrosive; searing.

2. Severe; satirical; sharp; as, a caustic remark.

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.

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.

2. (Optics) A caustic curve or caustic surface.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.