caustic

Meanings

Adjective

• Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
• Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.

Noun

• Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
• The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
• The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
• Caustic soda.

Related

Similar words

• acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing
• bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful, vitriolic

Origin

• From the Latin causticus ("burning"), from the Ancient Greek Ancient Greek καυστικός ("burning"), from καυστός + -ικός.