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Extinct
Definitions
- 1 Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched. archaic, not-comparable
"Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking."
- 2 Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed. figuratively, not-comparable
"My breath is corrupt, my dayes are extinct, the graues are ready for me."
- 3 Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, languages, etc.: no longer existing or in use; defunct, discontinued, obsolete; specifically, of a title of nobility: no longer having any person qualified to hold it. figuratively, not-comparable
"Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory."
- 4 Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives, or descendants. figuratively, not-comparable
"Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years."
- 5 Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting. figuratively, not-comparable
"Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct."
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- 6 Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, because it has a relatively short half-life. figuratively, not-comparable
- 7 Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others. figuratively, not-comparable, obsolete
"[H]e may at lybertie / Paſſe ſaue without hys ieopardy / Tyll that he be from vs extyncte / And clerely out of helles precincte"
- 1 (of e.g. volcanoes) permanently inactive wordnet
- 2 being out or having grown cold wordnet
- 3 no longer in existence; lost or especially having died out leaving no living representatives wordnet
- 1 Synonym of extinction (“the action of becoming or making extinct; annihilation”). obsolete, transitive, uncountable
"[W]ho is he […] as vvould not euen in the glas of Lucreſias perſeuerãce (euẽ to the vttermoſt extinct of life) ſe the vvõder of bevvty, matched vvith the indiuiduat adiũt vnſoyled conſtancy."
- 1 Synonym of extinguish.; To stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench. obsolete, transitive
"[…] Eugenia […] was put in the hot baths, which were extincted, and ſhe preſerued: […] At laſt the ſtorie ſaith, ſhée was with the ſword beheaded."
- 2 Synonym of extinguish.; To kill (someone). figuratively, obsolete, transitive
- 3 Synonym of extinguish.; To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy. figuratively, obsolete, transitive
"Graunt that al ſinne & vice here maie bee ſo extinct: that thei neuer haue power to raigne in they ſeruaũtes. Amẽ."
- 4 Synonym of extinguish.; To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy.; To cause (an animal or plant species) to die out completely or become extinct (adjective etymology 1 sense 2.3). figuratively, obsolete, specifically, transitive
"Paleontologists determine which animal species were extincted, and geomorphologists can find cycles of soil erosion. […] The first settlers were living along the coast of this very large island off Africa [Madagascar], but in about seven hundred years they had spread across the entire island and in the process extincted almost all large game, including hippos, tortoises, giant lemurs—some two dozen species in all."
- 5 Synonym of extinguish.; To suppress (something, as feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.); to quench. figuratively, obsolete, transitive
"It is more hard, loue to our ſelues to extinkt, / Then hate to other, to plucke from tharts preſinkt, / Thus, of iuſtice no let ledeth intrupcion, / Like this loue (name ſelfe loue) growne of corrupcion."
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- 6 Synonym of extinguish.; To abolish or make void (a law, a legal right, etc.); also, to cancel (a creditor's claim, a licence, etc.). figuratively, obsolete, transitive
"So if I have a rent charge, and grant it upon condition; now, though the condition be broken, the grantee's estate is not defeated till I have made my claim: but if after any such grant my father purchase the land, and it descend to me; now, if the condition be broken, the rent ceaseth without claim. But if I had purchased the land myself, then I had extincted mine own condition, because I had disabled myself to make my claim."
Etymology
From Late Middle English extinct (“eliminated, eradicated, extinguished”), from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus (“extinguished, quenched; destroyed, killed; made extinct”), the perfect passive participles of extinguō, exstinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench; (figurative) to abolish; to destroy, kill”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + stinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench”) (from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push”)). The Middle English word displaced Middle English aqueint, aquenched (“extinct; extinguished”). Doublet of extinguish.
From Middle English extincten (“to extinguish or put out (a fire, light, etc.); to destroy, kill; (figurative) to suppress (an uprising); (law) to quash or stop (legal proceedings); to cancel (a privilege, title, etc.); (medicine) to eliminate or reduce (inflammation, an ulcer, etc.)”), from extinct (adjective) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).
Either: * from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus, a noun use of the perfect passive participle of extinguō, exstinguō (see etymology 1); or * from the verb (see etymology 2).
See also for "extinct"
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