adustion

A1D2U1S1T1I1O1N1

noun

The act of burning, or heating to dryness; the state of being thus heated or dried.

Scrabble 9

Meanings

nounadustion (countable and uncountable, plural adustions)

plural adustions

  1. 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 Consumptions
    3 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 222

    Even 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 England

    In 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
  2. 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 88
    2 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 Beasts

    The 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

  1. Latinadustiō
  2. Latinadustiō
  3. Englishadustion

Learned borrowing from Latin adustiō.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Portuguese adustão
  • adustãothe act of burning or heating to dryness

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

adustion. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adustion

MLA

“adustion.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adustion. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “adustion,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/adustion.

Source: adustion on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.