fire extinguisher
noun
a portable container, usually filled with special chemicals for putting out a fire.
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fire extinguisher
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fire-extinguisher
fire-extinguishernouna portable device for extinguishing fires, usually consisting of a canister with a directional nozzle used to direct a spray of water, chemically generated foam, inert gas, or fine powder onto the fire
fire extinguisher
Americannoun
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fire extinguishers
plural
fire-extinguisher
British
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fire extinguisher
First recorded in 1830–40
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:
Too late, a UN security guard rushes in with a fire extinguisher.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Her parents made sure she knew how to use a fire extinguisher, which was very heavy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Small, professionally manufactured barbecues are allowed, as long as they are elevated at least a foot off the ground, placed at least 25 feet from buildings, and accompanied by a nearby fire extinguisher.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2025
This is like a fire extinguisher that requires a 48-hour waiting period.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 5, 2025
As the booths caught fire, Milton raced behind the counter to grab the fire extinguisher.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Before she started training to be a matador, she had worked in a beauty parlor and then as a typist at a fire-extinguisher factory, and both jobs drove her crazy.
From Slate ● Mar. 29, 2014
One of them, Fred Sullivan, has lifted his Walter Kidde Co. from a burglar-alarm and fire-extinguisher manufacturer with $40 million in sales five years ago to a $350 million conglomerate.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had ransacked the premises for every hand fire-extinguisher he could find, had brought them to the burning buildings and, with fine optimism, was now spraying their contents on the edges of the blaze.
From The Monk of Hambleton by Armstrong Livingston
Repeated experiments with it determined me that in searching for a high explosive, Perry had stumbled upon a fire-extinguisher that would have made his fortune for him back in our own world.
From Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Really, I must get introduced to her, and show her the self-acting fire-extinguisher I have just invented.
From Fighting the Flames by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
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.
