How to Use autoclave in a Sentence

autoclave

noun
  • The researchers placed a tiny yeast-free pizza dough no bigger than a penny in a hot autoclave.
    — Kristen Rogers, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022
  • The office building was locked — just me and the janitors and the whir of the autoclave.
    — New York Times, 26 Apr. 2022
  • As pressure was slowly released from the autoclave, bubbles formed in the dough.
    — Kristen Rogers, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022
  • Some tequila distillers still use them but there are two machines, the autoclave and the diffuser, that can do the job faster.
    — Oj Lima, Bon Appétit, 22 July 2022
  • Because their autoclave is roughly the size of a toaster oven, the team ended up with a set of miniature pizzas.
    — Corryn Wetzel, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Mar. 2022
  • No microscopes or autoclaves, just computers arranged in two long rows.
    — Elyse Butler, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
  • Perhaps Dallara, which supplies the tub, needs to squeeze out a few more gallons of resin before hitting the ol' autoclave.
    — Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 25 Mar. 2022
  • The structure was then frozen with liquid resin and later activated with heat—requiring no large autoclaves or ovens.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 13 Nov. 2025
  • Until recently, woven sheets of carbon fiber had to be laid up by hand in a mold, impregnated with resin, then cured for hours in an autoclave oven.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 28 Mar. 2012
  • Share an order of mozzarella sticks after first sterilizing itwi in an autoclave.
    — Scott Jacobson, The New Yorker, 26 June 2020
  • Following the success of their pint sized–pies, the Italian team plans to use a larger autoclave to produce standard-size pizzas.
    — Corryn Wetzel, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Mar. 2022
  • An autoclave is a machine that exposes surgical supplies to hot steam under pressure to sterilize them.
    — Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 30 Oct. 2024
  • Tequila, on the other hand, cooks its agave in industrial ovens or autoclaves, which results in a cleaner, more straightforward flavor.
    — Emily Price, Forbes, 5 Nov. 2024
  • That investment includes massive, very expensive autoclaves, which are high-pressure ovens where the carbon fiber infused with epoxy resin is baked to hardness.
    — Dominic Gates, The Seattle Times, 20 June 2017
  • In the fabrication process for composites, carbon fiber tape impregnated with epoxy resin is laid on a mold, then hardened in a high-pressure oven called an autoclave.
    — Dominic Gates, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Nov. 2021
  • The bricks can also be put through an autoclave—a machine scientists use to sterilize equipment with steam, like a dishwasher that is really not messing around.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 1 July 2014
  • Stericycle uses an autoclave, which kills pathogens with high-pressure steam to disinfect the waste before final disposal.
    — Dallas News, 12 Aug. 2021
  • The facility also did not have an autoclave—a pressurized oven—for sterilizing equipment.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 25 Apr. 2024
  • The dry fibers are significantly cheaper than the resin pre-impregnated fiber used in other processes and doesn’t require curing in an autoclave.
    — Sam Abuelsamid, Forbes, 17 June 2022
  • Nothing that comes in contact with infectious agents may be thrown away until it has first been sterilized using special ovens called autoclaves that kill all microbes and viruses with high-pressure steam.
    — Paul Sisson, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 June 2025
  • The robotics probe includes machine tools for cutting, welding and handling workpieces, autoclaves and industrial ovens.
    — Reuters 12 Hr Ago, CNN Money, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The agave is slow-cooked in stainless steel autoclaves, fermented in copper and stainless-steel tanks, and double-distilled in copper pot stills to ensure preservation of its nuanced character.
    — Jillian Dara, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
  • Barajas steers away from newer methods like using a diffuser or autoclave in her process and uses American whiskey barrels for the product’s 6-month resting process.
    — Carley Rojas Ávila, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Few, though, remember Charles Chamberland, inventor of the humble autoclave.
    — The Economist, 28 Nov. 2020
  • The material itself uses patches of different carbon weaves and laminations, squeezed by vacuum and baked in an autoclave steamer.
    — New Atlas, 5 June 2026
  • In a process described in the journal Nano Letters, the researchers suspended graphene oxide nanosheets along with vanadium pentoxide in water and then heated the suspension for hours in an autoclave.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 28 Mar. 2013
  • Unlike surgical or dental equipment that can easily be sterilized with steam in an autoclave, a duodenoscope has to be hand-scrubbed and then cleaned in a dishwasher-like machine that uses chemicals to kill micro-organisms.
    — Jonathan Saltzman, BostonGlobe.com, 16 Dec. 2019
  • The tequila is distilled on both pot and column stills to create two different styles of spirit after the agave is cooked in autoclaves, and perhaps most interestingly the distillery plays classical music during fermentation.
    — Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 6 June 2026
  • Police said that led to fraudulent purchases on the resident’s credit card, including one for a $5,000 dental autoclave, a machine that sterilizes dental equipment.
    — Rick Hurd, Mercury News, 16 July 2025
  • The composite wing is not produced the way Boeing manufactures the wings of the 787 Dreamliner — by baking the material to hardness in a high-pressure oven, known as an autoclave.
    — Dominic Gates, The Seattle Times, 30 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'autoclave.' 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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