extinguish Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb put an end to; kill
    snuff out.
    • The Nazis snuffed out the life of many Jewish children
  2. verb put out, as of fires, flames, or lights
    snuff out; blow out; quench.
    • Too big to be extinguished at once, the forest fires at best could be contained
    • quench the flames
    • snuff out the candles
  3. verb extinguish by crushing
    stub out; crush out; press out.
    • stub out your cigar
  4. verb terminate, end, or take out
    eliminate; get rid of; do away with.
    • Let's eliminate the course on Akkadian hieroglyphics
    • Socialism extinguished these archaic customs
    • eliminate my debts
  5. verb kill in large numbers
    annihilate; carry off; decimate; eliminate; wipe out; eradicate.
    • the plague wiped out an entire population

WordNet

Ex*tin"guish transitive verb
Etymology
L. extinguere, exstinguere; ex out + stinguere to quench. See Distinguish, Finish.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Extinguished; present participle & verbal noun Extinguishing
Definitions
  1. To quench; to put out, as a light or fire; to stifle; to cause to die out; to put an end to; to destroy; as, to extinguish a flame, or life, or love, or hope, a pretense or a right.
    A light which the fierce winds have no power to extinguish. Prescott.
    This extinguishes my right to the reversion. Blackstone.
  2. To obscure; to eclipse, as by superior splendor.
    Natural graces that extinguish art. Shak
    .

Webster 1913