caustic

comparative more caustic · superlative most caustic

1. Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.

   Synonyms: acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing

2. usuallySharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.

   "How now!" said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.

   1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

   5 more examples

   The bargain was not concluded as easily as might have been expected though, for Scadder was caustic and ill-humoured, and cast much unnecessary opposition in the way

   1843, Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit

   Madame Beck esteemed me learned and blue; Miss Fanshawe, caustic, ironic, and cynical

   1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette

   The Secretary and the Assistant-Secretaries would say little caustic things about him to the senior clerks, and seemed somewhat to begrudge him his new honours.

   1857, Anthony Trollope, The Three Clerks

   this set of worthies, who were only too prone to shut up their emotions with caustic words.

   1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge

   The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand for seats in the vicinity rose to an animated competition.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Synonyms: bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp

plural caustics

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

   1 more example

   The association of the heavenly bodies with known metals and also with human organs and destinies goes back to ancient Chaldea, the land of astrologers. In Chaucer’s words: ‘The seven bodies eek, lo hear anon. Sol gold is, and Luna silver we declare; Mars yron, Mercurie is quyksilver; Saturnian leed; and Jubitur is tyn, and Venus coper, by my fathers kyn.’ […] Corresponding names were bestowed upon salts of these metals by the alchemists, and some of them have persisted down to the present day. Some examples are lunar caustic (silver nitrate); vitriol of Venus (copper sulphate); sugar of Saturn (lead acetate); and vitriol of Mars, or Martial vitriol (ferrous sulphate).

   2013, John Read, From Alchemy to Chemistry

2. countableuncountablecomputer graphicsThe envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
3. countableuncountablemathematicsThe envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
4. informaluncountablechemistryCaustic soda.