extinguish

English

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”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Verb

extinguish (third-person singular simple present extinguishes, present participle extinguishing, simple past and past participle extinguished)

  1. (transitive) to put out, as in fire; to end burning; to quench
  2. (transitive) to destroy or abolish something
    She extinguished all my hopes.
    • 1668 December 19, James Dalrymple, “Mr. Alexander Seaton contra Menzies” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575
      The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Diſcharged as to one, and ſtand as to all the reſt.
  3. (transitive) to obscure or eclipse something
    The rays of the sun were extinguished by the thunder clouds.
  4. (transitive, psychology) to bring about the extinction of a conditioned reflex
  5. (transitive, literally) to hunt down (a species) to extinction

Synonyms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Further reading

  • extinguish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • extinguish in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
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