carbolicadj.n.

1835 F. F. Runge in Rec. Gen. Sci. 1 49 Carbolic Acid. This acid is a colourless oily substance... It is caustic and burning.

1842 J. Liebig & W. Gregory E. Turner's Elements Chem. (ed. 7) 1180 Runge has described under the names of carbolic acid,..pyrrole, and cyanol,..compounds derived from coal tar.

1865 J. Lister in Lancet 8 Apr. 363/2 There have remained..two small sores unhealed, and these within the last few days have been affected with hospital gangrene. This has, however, been checked by the application of carbolic acid.

1881 Nature No. 618. 405 Some substance capable of killing the germs, without being itself too potent a caustic... Dilute carbolic acid fulfilled these conditions.

1931 Good Housek. (U.S. ed.) Dec. 123/2 (advt.) The active ingredient..is 70 times more powerful than carbolic acid in germ-killing power.

1982 G. C. Hill & J. S. Holman Chem. in Context: Lab. Man. & Study Guide 146/1 The train was hauling a cargo of liquid chlorine, carbolic acid (phenol), methanol, acetone (propanone), anhydrous ammonia and sulphur.

2001 L. Mitton Victorian Hosp. 8 In 1865 Lister used carbolic acid for dressing wounds to reduce post-operative infections.

1863 Lancet 5 Sept. 272/1 To use the creasote ointment at bedtime, and the carbolic lotion daily.

1869 Lancet 20 Nov. 703/2 Scrubbing a patient with carbolic soap in a bath ought to be postponed till a very late period of the disease.

1880 W. MacCormac Antiseptic Surg. 170 The mackintosh should be dipped, shortly before use, in carbolic solution.

1907 Practitioner June 803 Bottles and forceps were asepticised by being dipped in carbolic lotion.

1947 W. P. Blount Dis. Poultry xlv. 448 The ordinary carbolic and cresylic disinfectants have a preservative rather than destructive effect on coccidia.

1952 T. Armstrong Adam Brunskill viii. 253 Working up as much lather as carbolic soap and ice-cold water could furnish on the flannel.

1985 Times 29 Oct. 2/3 His guards made him do press-ups or wash with carbolic soap for minor rule infringements.

1994 D. J. Warren Old Med. & Dental Instruments 14/1 Lister-type carbolic sprays were widely used, both in hospitals and by the family doctor.

1878 Lancet 22 June 921/1 A few drops of the strong impure carbolic is added to the water as a disinfectant.

1884 Med. Uses Carbolic Acid (F. C. Calvert & Co.) 47 I used 1 pint of Carbolic to each room.

1907 M. C. Harris Tents of Wickedness i. iv. 58 The stone floors are so cold, and there is such a smell of carbolic.

1939 C. Isherwood Goodbye to Berlin 135 He was so terrified of infection that he would wash his hands with carbolic after picking up a cat.

1950 ‘P. Woodruff’ Island of Chamba xiv. 207 The smell of the wards, a smell of darkness, sickness and corruption, carbolic and latrines.

2001 I. McEwan Atonement 285 She scrubbed down the vacated lockers, helped wash bedframes in carbolic, swept and polished the floors.

1881 Sanitary Rec. 15 Mar. 334/1 I took every precaution, by washing my hands carbolically after seeing a patient with a sore throat.

1926 Blackwood's Mag. Sept. 405/1 Luckily, the local artist uses aconite only, which, carbolically treated and cauterised, gives a fair chance to the recipient.

1968 M. Balderson When Jays fly to Bárbmo 178 Everything shone and glistened in the best of Norwegian housekeeping traditions... The atmosphere itself smelled carbolically clean.

1986 Daily Tel. 28 Feb. 29/2 ‘Up the Junction’ (1967)—Rather disappointing, carbolically caricatured cinema version of the story better done in the BBC TV film two years before.

1996 Daily Mail 19 Feb. A pale-faced waif of a lad who looked as if he had been kept down a mineshaft for a fortnight and carbolically cleaned for the occasion.