English
extinguish
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɪkˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/
Verb

extinguish (extinguishes, present participle extinguishing; 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.
    They intended to extinguish the enemy by force of numbers
    • 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.
    A beauty that extinguishes all others by comparison
  4. (transitive, psychology) to bring about the extinction of a conditioned reflex
    Many patients can extinguish their phobias after a few months of treatment.
  5. (transitive, literally) to hunt down (a species) to extinction
  6. (intransitive) To die out.
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