\Ster"il*ize\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Sterilized}; p.
pr. & vb. n. {Sterilizing}.] [Cf. F. st['e]riliser.]
1. To make sterile or unproductive; to impoverish, as land;
   to exhaust of fertility. [R.] ``Sterilizing the earth.''
   --Woodward.
2. (Biol.)
   (a) To deprive of the power of reproducing; to render
       incapable of germination or fecundation; to make
       sterile.
   (b) To destroy all spores or germs in (an organic fluid or
       mixture), as by heat, so as to prevent the development
       of bacterial or other organisms.