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
Another sprayed a fire extinguisher, sending up a white cloud.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
He said he returned with a fire extinguisher and tried to fight the fire but he heard two explosions in the vape shop and had to turn around.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 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
The Wonder bread absorbed the acid like fire extinguisher foam and splattered against the hydra, covering it in a sticky, steaming layer of high-calorie poisonous goo.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
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
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
And I—pulled the fire-extinguisher releases just as we hit!
From Space Platform by Murray Leinster
The cutting contempt of Mrs. James W. Colton's remark was fire-extinguisher sufficient for that night.
From The Rise of Roscoe Paine by Joseph Crosby Lincoln
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.
