caustic

  1. Adjective.  Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
  2. Adjective.  (context, of language etc) sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, sarcastic.
  3. Noun.  Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
  4. Noun.  (context, optics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
  5. Noun.  (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
  6. Noun.  (context, informal) caustic soda.

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This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.