Extinguish
//ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ// verb
verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench. transitive
- 2 kill in large numbers wordnet
- 3 To eclipse or obscure (someone or something). figuratively, transitive
"A beauty that extinguishes all others by comparison"
- 4 terminate, end, or take out wordnet
- 5 To kill (someone). figuratively, transitive
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 put an end to; kill wordnet
- 7 To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy. figuratively, transitive
"She extinguished all my hopes."
- 8 extinguish by crushing wordnet
- 9 To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy.; To bring about the extinction of (a conditioned reflex). figuratively, transitive
"Many patients can extinguish their phobias after a few months of treatment."
- 10 put out, as of fires, flames, or lights wordnet
- 11 To suppress (something, as feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.); to quench. figuratively, transitive
- 12 To abolish or make void (a law, a legal right, etc.); also, to cancel (a creditor's claim, a licence, etc.). figuratively, transitive
"1668 December 19, James Dalrymple, “Mr. Alexander Seaton contra Menzies” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575"
- 13 To die out. intransitive, reflexive
Example
More examples"Don't forget to extinguish your cigarette."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin extinguo (“to put out (what is burning), quench, extinguish, deprive of life, destroy, abolish”), from ex (“out”) + stinguere (“to put out, quench, extinguish”). Doublet of extinct.
Related phrases
More for "extinguish"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.