First recorded in 1830–40
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her parents made sure she knew how to use a fire extinguisher, which was very heavy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Another sprayed a fire extinguisher, sending up a white cloud.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
This is like a fire extinguisher that requires a 48-hour waiting period.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 5, 2025
The court saw footage of PC Forsyth come out of the station with a fire extinguisher.
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2025
The width of the crowd knocked the fire extinguisher from the wall in the stairwell.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
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
As he raced through the hall he caught up a portable chemical fire-extinguisher.
From Tom Swift and His Sky Racer, or, the Quickest Flight on Record by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]
The machine reminded me at first glance of a fire-extinguisher; then of some appliance used by miners to hold a supply of oxygen.
From The Car of Destiny by Both, Armand
Tom and Mr. Baxter spent many days and nights perfecting the fire-extinguisher chemical, and, after repeated tests, Tom felt that he was nearer his goal.
From Tom Swift Among the Fire Fighters, or, Battling with Flames from the Air by Appleton, Victor [pseud.]
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.
