Meanings
plural adustions
- countableobsoleteuncountableThe act of burning, or heating to dryness; the state of being thus heated or dried.
it must be by aduſtion or putting it into a fame
1672, Gideon Harvey, Morbus Anglicus, Or, The Anatomy of Consumptions3 more examples
But if her death doe enſue thereupon, he shal render life for life, / eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foote for foote, / aduſtion for aduſtion, wound for wound, ſtripe for ſtripe.
1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Exodus 21:23–25, page 222Even while disputing the model, Gendron and Wiseman, both prominent medical authors and practitioners, grudgingly admitted that adustion had become the predominant theory on the generation of cancers.
2015, Alanna Skuse, Constructions of Cancer in Early Modern EnglandIn Heywood's hands, this became though by her complection, her constitution might seeme to be cold, yet her noble actions declared that choler had the predominance in her, even to adustion, her eyes were sparkling sharpe and piercing, her tongue shrill and harsh, as her person was tall and great...'
2018, Martha Vandrei, Queen Boudica and Historical Culture in Britain, page 62 - countableobsoleteuncountablemedicineCauterization.
Albucasis adviseth that neither incision nor adustion is to be made in the Neck or Throat; because of the many Vessels, as Arteries, Nerves and Veins, there every where planted;
1703, John Brown, The Surgeon's Assistant, page 882 more examples
some use to apply this to the fat, but in our time it is all out of use, and seeing yet the pains of the hip do rather fall into the thighs, shins, and legs, then ascend up into the Arms and shoulders, Aetius and Cornarius say, that this adustion for the hips was used in the ancient time divers ways, and some on this manner, holding the burning dung in a pair of tongs unto the leg of that side where the pain lyeth, untill the adustion be felt in the hip, and this course used Discorides.
1607, Edward Topsell, History of Four Footed BeastsThe second reason is, the want of some approved and methodised treatise, defining the diseases which would exclusively require the actual cautery, the diagnosis or pathological state of others which might require its application, with comparative statements of the best mode of adustion of materials with which it should be effected;[…]
1818, Samuel Latham Mitchill, The Medical Repository, page 166
Origin
- Latinadustiō
- Latinadustiō
- Englishadustion
Learned borrowing from Latin adustiō.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Portuguese adustão
- adustãothe act of burning or heating to dryness
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
adustion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adustion
“adustion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adustion. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “adustion,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adustion.
Source: adustion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.