EXTINGUISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does extinguish mean? 

• EXTINGUISH (verb)
  The verb EXTINGUISH has 5 senses:

1. put an end to; kill

2. put out, as of fires, flames, or lights

3. extinguish by crushing

4. terminate, end, or take out

5. kill in large numbers

  Familiarity information: EXTINGUISH used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXTINGUISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they extinguish    ... he / she / it extinguishes   
Past simple: extinguished   
Past participle: extinguished   
-ing form: extinguishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put an end to; kill

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

extinguish; snuff out

Context example:

The Nazis snuffed out the life of many Jewish children

Hypernyms (to "extinguish" is one way to...):

do away with; eliminate; extinguish; get rid of (terminate, end, or take out)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "extinguish"):

stamp (destroy or extinguish as if by stamping with the foot)

put out; smother (deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

extinction (the act of extinguishing; causing to stop burning)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Put out, as of fires, flames, or lights

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Synonyms:

blow out; extinguish; quench; snuff out

Context example:

snuff out the candles

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "extinguish"):

stub (extinguish by crushing)

douse; put out (put out, as of a candle or a light)

black out (obliterate or extinguish)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

ignite (cause to start burning; subject to fire or great heat)

Derivation:

extinction (the act of extinguishing; causing to stop burning)

extinguisher (a manually operated device for extinguishing small fires)

extinguishing (the act of extinguishing; causing to stop burning)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Extinguish by crushing

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

crush out; extinguish; press out; stub out

Context example:

stub out your cigar

Hypernyms (to "extinguish" is one way to...):

end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Terminate, end, or take out

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

do away with; eliminate; extinguish; get rid of

Context example:

eliminate my debts

Hypernyms (to "extinguish" is one way to...):

destroy; destruct (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "extinguish"):

cancel out; wipe out (wipe out the effect of something)

decouple (reduce or eliminate the coupling of (one circuit or part to another))

decouple (eliminate airborne shock waves from (an explosive))

obliterate (do away with completely, without leaving a trace)

knock out (eliminate)

drown (get rid of as if by submerging)

cut out (delete or remove)

cut; prune; rationalise; rationalize (weed out unwanted or unnecessary things)

extinguish; snuff out (put an end to; kill)

except; exclude; leave off; leave out; omit; take out (prevent from being included or considered or accepted)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Kill in large numbers

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

annihilate; carry off; decimate; eliminate; eradicate; extinguish; wipe out

Context example:

the plague wiped out an entire population

Hypernyms (to "extinguish" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

Verb group:

decimate (kill one in every ten, as of mutineers in Roman armies)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

extinction (complete annihilation)

 Context examples 

To get rid of her, I undressed quickly, extinguished my light, and went to bed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It has been used to treat phobias and anxiety, to manage pain, and to extinguish habits and addictions.

(Hypnotherapy, NCI Thesaurus)

"There are 22 fires and five of those are not contained. There's still a lot of fire around the landscape," he said, adding it would be at least several days before they were extinguished.

(Australian Wildfires Destroy Homes, Kill Cattle as Hundreds of People Flee, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

About nine o’clock the light among the trees was extinguished, and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And Proxima b could be subject to potentially life-extinguishing stellar flares.

(ESO Discovers Earth-Size Planet in Habitable Zone of Nearest Star, NASA)

Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

That they might have met without ill consequence is perhaps probable; but his regard did not appear to me enough extinguished for him to see her without some danger.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Impossible!—when I told you how she, on the contrary, deserted me: the idea of my insolvency cooled, or rather extinguished, her flame in a moment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When the early stars died, black holes, supernovae and other objects they left behind continued the ionizing process and heated the remaining free hydrogen with X-rays, eventually extinguishing the signal.

(Astronomers detect ancient signal from first stars in universe, National Science Foundation)

I was too soon, then, since he had not extinguished his candles.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)