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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Caustic

Caus'tic or Caus'tic-al, a.

adjective

a. [Lat. causticus, Gr. καυστικός, from καίειν, future καύσω, to burn.]

Sense 1. Destructive to the texture of any thing; burning; corrosive; pungent.

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

Caustic curve (Geom.), a curve to which the rays of light, reflected or refracted by another curve, are tangents. This curve is of two kinds; viz., the catacaustic, formed by reflection, and the diacaustic, formed by refraction.

Synonyms— Stinging; cutting; pungent; searching.

Caus'tic, n.

noun

n. [Lat. causticum (sc. medicamentum), Gr. καυστικόν. See supra.]

  1. Any substance which, applied to animal substances, burns, corrodes, or destroys the texture; an escharotic.
  2. (Opt.) A caustic curve.

Lunar caustic, a preparation of silver, obtained by solution in nitric acid, and afterward fused in a crucible. It is a nitrate of silver.