exterminator
[ik-stur-muh-ney-ter]
- a person or thing that exterminates.
- a person or business establishment specializing in the elimination of vermin, insects, etc., from a building, apartment, etc., especially by the controlled application of toxic chemicals.
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Origin of exterminator
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for exterminator
Contemporary Examples
Ditto the kind of people who let garbage pile up undisposed of (and don't or can't call an exterminator).
And a rubbing alcohol/lavender oil mix works only as a short-term defense to buy time until the exterminator comes.
An exterminator, Dill took a job in Iraq for a company contracted to do pest control on military bases.
Despite having the nickname “the exterminator,” DeLay did not try to exterminate wasteful spending when in power.
Historical Examples
Cook as an exterminator of the human species seemed too glittering a novelty.
Wanted: A CookAlan Dale
Sometimes they are enemies who must be immolated to Mars the exterminator.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 5 (of 10)Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
What would the Black Spider need to do to escape her exterminator?
More Hunting WaspsJ. Henri Fabre
Now, apparently, he was being pressed into service as an exterminator.
Student BodyFloyd L. Wallace
But neither supposition proved to be correct, for we presently picked up the “exterminator,” floating near us.
The Island HomeRichard Archer
Word Origin and History for exterminator
n.
c.1400, "an angel who expells (people from a country)," from Late Latin exterminator, from Latin exterminatus, past participle stem of exterminare (see exterminate). As a substance for ridding a place of rats, etc., by 1848. As a person whose job it is to do this, by 1938.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper