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Extinguish
//ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ// verb
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
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.
See also for "extinguish"
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