Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To cause (a fire or light) to stop burning or shining; put out.
  • transitive verb To put an end to or make extinct; destroy: synonym: annihilate.
  • transitive verb Psychology To bring about the extinction of (a conditioned response).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To put out; quench; stifle: as, to extinguish fire or flame.
  • To destroy; put an end to; suppress: as, to extinguish an army; to extinguish desire or hope; to extinguish a claim or title.
  • To put under a cloud; obscure: eclipse; make unnoticed or unnoticeable: as, he was completely extinguished in this brilliant company.
  • In law, to put an end to. See extinguishment, 2.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To quench; to put out, as a light or fire; to stifle; to cause to die out; to put an end to; to destroy.
  • transitive verb To obscure; to eclipse, as by superior splendor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive to put out, as in fire; to end burning; to quench
  • verb transitive to destroy or abolish something
  • verb transitive to obscure or eclipse something
  • verb transitive, psychology to bring about the extinction of a conditioned reflex
  • verb transitive, literally to hunt down (a species) to extinction

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb put out, as of fires, flames, or lights
  • verb put an end to; kill
  • verb terminate, end, or take out
  • verb kill in large numbers
  • verb extinguish by crushing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin exstinguere : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex– + stinguere, to quench; see steig- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin extinguo, past participle extinctus ("to put out (what is burning), quench, extinguish, deprive of life, destory, abolish"), from ex ("out") + stinguere ("to put out, quench, extinguish").

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