extinguish
Americanverb (used with object)
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extinguishes,
present (3rd person singular)
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extinguished,
past participle, past
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extinguishing
present participle
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to put out (a fire, light, etc.); put out the flame of (something burning or lighted).
to extinguish a candle.
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to put an end to or bring to an end; wipe out of existence; annihilate.
to extinguish hope.
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to obscure or eclipse, as by superior brilliance.
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Law. to discharge (a debt), as by payment.
verb
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to put out or quench (a light, flames, etc)
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to remove or destroy entirely; annihilate
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archaic to eclipse or obscure by or as if by superior brilliance
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law to discharge (a debt)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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extinguishernoun
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extinguishmentnoun
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preextinguishmentnoun
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preextinguishverb (used with object)
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extinguishableadjective
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nonextinguishableadjective
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nonextinguishedadjective
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self-extinguishingadjective
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unextinguishableadjective
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unextinguishedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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extinguishsimple
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extinguishessimple
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have extinguishedperfect
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has extinguishedperfect
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am extinguishingprogressive
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are extinguishingprogressive
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is extinguishingprogressive
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have been extinguishingperfect progressive
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has been extinguishingperfect progressive
Past
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extinguishedsimple
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had extinguishedperfect
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was extinguishingprogressive
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were extinguishingprogressive
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had been extinguishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of extinguish
1535–45; < Latin ex ( s ) tingu ( ere ) ( ex- ex- 1 + stinguere to quench) + -ish 2
Explanation
To extinguish something means to put an end to it, and get rid of it completely. Water can extinguish a fire; nasty smells can extinguish your appetite. Extinguish comes from the Latin word for quench, but while we might think that quenching something, say our thirst, is good, the word extinguish often has sinister overtones. In a genocide, one group tries to extinguish another — too quench their hatred, by killing everyone in the other group.
Vocabulary lists containing extinguish
A Wrinkle in Time
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100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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The Great Fire
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“He used a fire extinguisher in an attempt to extinguish the fire and observed additional fires spotting in close proximity,” the report states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
The water used to extinguish the fires caused even more damage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
Days after he helped extinguish the Eaton Fire in Los Angeles, Pasadena Fire Captain David Marquez inhaled his first dose of glutathione on the side of the road outside the Rose Bowl stadium.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
"With the limitations we have, we try as hard as we can to extinguish the fires and also to reduce the smoke."
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
By now he could extinguish the burning matches with his mouth quite well, but all the same Dustfinger took the box of matches away from him, and Farid looked sadly at his empty hands.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
Today, I bring your attention to the Colorado Supreme Court, which this month reaffirmed an inexplicable quirk of its excessive sentencing jurisprudence that preemptively extinguishes constitutional rights for entire categories of people.
From Slate ● Dec. 29, 2025
Navy in the 1960s, the foams form an aqueous film around burning gasoline and other flammable liquids, which quickly deprives the fire of oxygen and extinguishes it.
From Science Daily ● May 9, 2024
“The Sackler release extinguishes the claims of all opioid claimants except the United States, and therefore applies to an untold number of claimants who did not specifically consent to the release’s terms,” Ms. Prelogar wrote.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 29, 2023
One of the more subtle things that we added is showing how Ember extinguishes, disappears and comes back.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2023
Masjid throws me a glance of surprise in the rearview mirror, and I catch a faint glimmer of a smile that he quickly extinguishes.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
He ended that speech saying that Diana would “never be extinguished from our minds,” a line he now says he included as a retort to Charles’s call saying that she would be forgotten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
It's a line he now says was specifically intended to be a riposte to the other Charles' suggestion that she would quickly be forgotten: Diana "will never be extinguished from our minds".
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
The fires have since been extinguished and the road has reopened.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
A small fire on the reserve in June was extinguished using water from a pond created with cash from the Scottish government's nature restoration fund as a habitat for species like rare dragonflies.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
On the opposite bank, the glimmers of silver were suddenly extinguished.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Before firefighters had finished extinguishing the blaze, I found Liliya Velyka, a 28-year-old book blogger, raking through the smouldering ruins, seeing if anything could be saved.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Mexico had just lost 3-2 to England, extinguishing the hope that it could parlay its World Cup co-host role into the deepest tournament run in the country’s history.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Trump administration officials affirmed Cole Allen shot a Secret Service officer, extinguishing doubt about the source of the gunfire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
"Emergency services rushed to the scene and found the vehicle completely engulfed in flames. Firefighters carried out rescue and extinguishing operations. A security perimeter was set up," a police statement said.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
He watched unseen from the stairwell as his uncle moved from room to room, extinguishing the candles and the fires.
From "The Marvels" by Brian Selznick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
