verb To rid of microorganisms by cleaning or disinfecting.
verb To make something, such as a dramatic work, more acceptable by removing potentially offensive material.
verb To filter (text) to ensure it does not contain any characters that will cause problems for or be interpreted in an adverse way by the receiving system.
Remember to sanitize your query parameters to avoid SQL injection exploits.
verb To remove sensitive or personal data from (a database or file).
verb To revise (a document) in order to prevent identification of the sources.