different between caustic vs noxious

English

Etymology

From the Latin causticus (“burning”), from the Ancient Greek ????????? (kaustikós, “burning”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: kôs't?k, k?s't?k, IPA^(key): /?k??st?k/, /?k?st?k/
• Rhymes: -??st?k

Adjective

caustic (comparative more caustic, superlative most caustic)

1. Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue.
2. (of language, etc.) Sharp, bitter, cutting, biting, and sarcastic in a scathing way.
   • 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette

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

   • c. 1930, W.H.Auden, "The Quest"

     though he came too late / To join the martyrs, there was still a place / Among the tempters for a caustic tongue / / To test the resolution of the young / With tales of the small failings of the great

Synonyms

• (capable of destroying tissue): acidic, biting, burning, corrosive, searing
• (severe, sharp): bitchy, biting, catty, mordacious, nasty, sarcastic, scathing, sharp, spiteful, vitriolic

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

caustic (plural caustics)

1. Any substance or means which, applied to animal or other organic tissue, burns, corrodes, or destroys it by chemical action; an escharotic.
2. (optics, computer graphics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays of light for a given surface or object.
3. (mathematics) The envelope of reflected or refracted rays for a given curve.
4. (informal, chemistry) Caustic soda.

Derived terms

• lunar caustic

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• noctious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin noxius (“hurtful, injurious”), from noxa (“hurt, injury”), from nocere (“to hurt, injure”); see nocent.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?k??s/

Adjective

noxious (comparative more noxious, superlative most noxious)

1. Harmful; injurious.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "noxious" is often applied: substance, chemical, fume, gas, odor, plant, weed, animal, stimulus, stimulation.

Synonyms

• harmful
• injurious
• scathel
• see also Thesaurus:harmful

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• noxious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• noxious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• noxious at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “noxious”, in Online Etymology Dictionary