cau·ter·ize cauterizes cauterizing cauterized in BRIT, also use cauterise If a doctor cauterizes a wound, he or she burns it with heat or with a chemical in order to close it up and prevent it from becoming infected. He cauterized the wound with a piece of red-hot iron. to treat a wound or a growth on your body by burning it with hot metal, a laser, or a chemical (cautériser, from , from cauterium , from , from kaiein; CAUSTIC)