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If you have a burning desire to know the origins of caustic, you're already well on your way to figuring it out. Caustic was formed in Middle English as an adjective describing chemical substances, such as lime and lye, that are capable of destroying or eating away at something. The word is based on the Latin adjective causticus, which itself comes ultimately from the Greek verb kaiein, meaning "to burn." In time, caustic was baked into the English language as an adjective describing people or things (such as wit or remarks) that are bitingly sarcastic. Other kaiein descendants in English include cautery and cauterize, causalgia (a burning pain caused by nerve damage), and encaustic (a kind of paint that is heated after it's applied).
Synonyms
Examples of caustic in a Sentence
Garry Wills, Atlantic, April 1994
It was Schuyler's gift for satire and his caustic wit that distinguished his writings and led to his nickname, the Black Mencken.
—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., New York Times Book Review, 20 Sept. 1992
Albert quailed before those caustic pronouncements, he shuddered and blanched and felt his stomach drop like a croquette into a vat of hot grease.
—T. Coraghessan Boyle, Harper's, October 1987
The chemical was so caustic that it ate through the pipes.
She wrote a caustic report about the decisions that led to the crisis.
Kory Grow, Rolling Stone, 10 Nov. 2023
Meanwhile, Simonyan, who usually reacts on RT with caustic ridicule to information about civilian victims of Russian bombardment in Ukraine, is reacting with horror to similar events in Gaza.
—Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2023
House Select Committee via AP Her father gave caustic testimony.
—Jennifer Peltz, Fortune, 8 Nov. 2023
Suffice it to say that his talent for caustic humor, authentic emotion and thoroughly satisfying narrative resolutions continues unabated.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 1 Nov. 2023
Robotic equipment removed the weapons’ fuses and bursters before the mustard agent was neutralized with hot water and mixed with a caustic solution to prevent the reaction from reversing.
—Andrew Demillo, Thomas Peipert, and Dylan Lovan, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 July 2023
The 2024 Republican presidential race is entering a fraught and caustic new phase, as Donald J. Trump’s wide lead remains undiminished, the days until voting begins dwindle and his rivals take aim at each other as much as at him.
—Maggie Haberman, New York Times, 7 Nov. 2023
Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama and the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, pointed to the caustic political discourse dominating modern campaigns, saying a unified front was essential.
—Nick Corasaniti, New York Times, 7 Sep. 2023
Toxie’s weapon of choice is a mop dipped in the same caustic sludge that transformed him, its noxious embers burning green like bioluminescent plankton lighting up the sea at night.
—Michael Nordine, Variety, 21 Sep. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'caustic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Caustic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caustic. Accessed 2 Dec. 2023.
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caustic
1 of 2 adjective
caustic
2 of 2 noun
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