Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or operation of making sterile; specifically, the process of freeing from living germs. Also spelled sterilisation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Biol.) The act or process of sterilizing, or rendering sterile; also, the state of being sterile.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The process of treating something to kill or inactivate microorganisms.
  • noun uncountable A procedure to permanently prevent an organism from reproducing.
  • noun countable an instance of a sterilization procedure
  • noun uncountable A monetary policy operation used to offset a foreign exchange intervention.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the procedure of making some object free of live bacteria or other microorganisms (usually by heat or chemical means)
  • noun the act of making an organism barren or infertile (unable to reproduce)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Yes, forced sterilization is the height of compassion.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Rehabilitating Pharaoh 2010

  • “Eugenic sterilization is an urgent need … We must prevent multiplication of this bad stock.”

    Crazy? Ig’nint? | My[confined]Space 2009

  • The same disapproval for birth control and sterilization is more difficult to understand, but I accept that it exists.

    14 Important Science Questions 2008

  • I know that regret after sterilization is highest among women under 30 and I would do my best to discourage such a person from doing it.

    Keeping Your Fertility Options Open aka TBTAM 2007

  • Yelling that the restrooms of OK high schools are filled with lesbians and forcible sterilization is social conservatism?

    Think Progress » Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) 2005

  • Tomatoes really are the easiest vegetable to can, because the period of sterilization is short, and many jars may be canned in a day, or if one is very busy a few jars may be canned daily without the expenditure of a great deal of time.

    Every Step in Canning Grace Viall Gray

  • Short-term sterilization T-bills are just that: FX sterilization securities - rapidly unwound in case of a reversal of volatile flows (India as a case in point).

    All Roads Lead To China 2009

  • The ECB could provide some relief by engaging in "quantitative easing" (creating new Euros), but it has insisted it would do so only with "sterilization" -- taking as much money out of the system as it puts back in.

    Ellen Brown: Deficit Terrorists Strike in the United Kingdom: United States of America Next? 2010

  • Central banks can counterbalance the effect of printing money through a process known as sterilization, in which they sop up money by issuing local-currency bonds.

    BOJ's Current Account Is Set to Expand Megumi Fujikawa 2011

  • In addition, increasing interest rates raises the cost to the central bank of its so-called sterilization operations, in which the bank issues debt to soak up funds from exports and foreign capital inflows.

    Beijing Raises Interest Rates Again Aaron Back 2011

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