CAUSTIC

caustic, corrosive, erosive, vitriolic, mordant

(adjective) of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action

acerb, acerbic, acid, acrid, bitter, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, virulent, vitriolic

(adjective) harsh or corrosive in tone; “an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose”; “a barrage of acid comments”; “her acrid remarks make her many enemies”; “bitter words”; “blistering criticism”; “caustic jokes about political assassination, talk-show hosts and medical ethics”; “a sulfurous denunciation”; “a vitriolic critique”

caustic

(noun) any chemical substance that burns or destroys living tissue

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Adjective

caustic (comparative more caustic, superlative most caustic)

Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.

(of language, etc.) Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.

Synonyms

• (capable of destroying tissue): acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing

• (severe, sharp): bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful, vitriolic

Noun

caustic (plural caustics)

Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.

(optics, computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.

(mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.

(informal, chemistry) Caustic soda.

Source: Wiktionary

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Caus"tic, Caus"tic*al, a. Etym: [L. caustucs, Ge. 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. Etym: [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)

Definition: A caustic curve or caustic surface.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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