Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A strong, pressurized, steam-heated vessel, as for laboratory experiments, sterilization, or cooking.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A kind of stewpan, the lid of which is kept close and steam-tight by the steam proceeding from the contents of the pan. It is an application to culinary purposes of Papin's digester. See digester.
- n. A form of digester in which mixtures of chemicals can be safely heated under great pressure: largely used in the manufacture of coal-tar dyestuffs.
- n. A device for the sterilization by steam under pressure of bacterial cultures or culture media, milk, and other substances.
Wiktionary
- n. A strong, pressurized, heated vessel, as for laboratory experiments, sterilization, cooking or mineral processing.
- v. transitive To sterilize laboratory equipment in an autoclave.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A kind of French stewpan with a steam-tight lid.
- n. a device used for sterilizing objects by exposing them to steam at above atmospheric pressure (and thus at a temperature above the normal boiling point of water). It consists of a closed chamber able to withstand internal pressure, and a means of passing superheated steam into the chamber.
Autoclaves are made in various sizes, and are much used in hospitals and research laboratories to render instruments and equipment sterile.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a device for heating substances above their boiling point; used to manufacture chemicals or to sterilize surgical instruments
- v. subject to the action of an autoclave
Etymologies
- From French autoclave, formed with prefix auto- + Latin clavis ("key"). (Wiktionary)
- French : Greek auto-, auto- + Latin clāvis, key (from the fact that it is self-locking from the pressurization). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Then Gilles took it out of the wine, cooked it with alcohol to make a flamb, added flour and pig blood and cooked it in the autoclave, which is basically a large, cylindrical pressure cooker.”
“The prototype of the autoclave was the digester of Denis Papin, invented in 1681, which is still used in cooking, but the appliance finds a much wider range of employment in chemical industry, where it is utilized in various forms in the manufacture of candles, coal-tar colours, &c.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon"
“Genkin's windowless clinic in North York was equipped with a green vinyl dental chair, rusted and ratty, and a heavily dinged autoclave, which is used to sterilize equipment but was not turned on.”
“It put $500,000 into the world's largest "autoclave," a giant blue cylinder that works like a pressure cooker to stick, or laminate, glass plates together.”
The Wall Street Journal: China Closes the Gap in Glass Making
“This can be tested in an autoclave which is simply a pressure cooker that can withstand higher pressures.”
“After all, it was in the corner of the autoclave room, right next to that stainless-steel behemoth, that my mother kept a sanctuary for herself during the seven years she spent at Missing before our rude arrival.”
“But just beyond the swinging door in the room adjoining Operating Theater 3, the oversize autoclave (donated by the Lutheran church in Zurich) bellowed and wept for my mother while its scalding steam sterilized the surgical instruments and towels that would be used on her.”
“Some public health authorities, infectious-disease specialists and national security experts say the time has come to autoclave hundreds of vials of the pathogen held in two high-security government labs in the United States and Russia.”
The Washington Post: Should last remaining known smallpox virus die?
“This test, usually done monthly, shows how effective an autoclave is at killing a certain heat-resistant bacteria.”
The Washington Post: Getting a tattoo is largely safe, though experts advise using a reputable shop
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘autoclave’.
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medtech
terms found in documentation for implantable medical devices and IVD equip
distal, luer, stopcock, lumen, tortuosity, anneal, flouroscopy, radiopaque, distractor, toeing, tang, endoprosthesis and 173 more...
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words about piercings
needles, metal, piercing, tongue, surface, nape, ears, mouth, industrial, nose, tragus, webbing and 11 more...
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In The Colorhouse
A colorhouse - a manufactory of colors for tints, dyes, pigments, paints, glazes, &c. Terms associated with the science and history of colormaking.
All sorts of things went into color...colorhouse, Turkey red, dyebath, woad, ocher, lead white, mordant, Naples yellow, zaffer, kiln, vat, pot and 298 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, A
abaculus, abacus, abaft, abarticular, abbreviate, abeyance, abiding, anthocyanin, antemeridian, arcane, adjure, adduce and 418 more...
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Sweet Smoke of Rhetoric
The ones with which I flavor my speech, and the ones I love to find peppered in literature.
perspicacious, acerbic, vituperation, loquacious, castigate, vitriolic, scintillating, provenance, frolic, attendant, pursuant, epistemology and 313 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Phrases and words I didn't know
give up the ghost, ninja'd, coal-hole, hotting up, chancer, clave, salaryman, turf accountant, cremains, autoclave, hummingbird mind, gank and 175 more...
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eastling's list
crucible, catalyst, centrifuge, zeppelin, dirigible, bourgeoisie, algorithm, autoclave, astrolabe, gallows tree, à tes souhaits, la petite mort and 6 more...
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nsanch's words
whirr, englightenment, vocabularious, sophistry, scriven, magniloquent, muppet, kickingest-ass, leverage, autoclave, hooligan, moppet and 5 more...
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Words I see almost every day
nicotine, faust, sonic, nitrile, pinhead, zeigler, sparse, chromosome, methyl, autoclave
Tweets
Looking for tweets for autoclave.
jodi The Mountain Goats song, Autoclave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sskFjbHu_W0
"My heart's an autoclave" Apr 18, 2011