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:
“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
Once you purchase a fire extinguisher for your vehicle, placement is also very important.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
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
Instead, I pull myself back behind a fire extinguisher, so that if he happens to look down the ball in my direction he will not see me.
From "The Misfits" by James Howe
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 Victor [pseud.] Appleton
And I—pulled the fire-extinguisher releases just as we hit!
From Space Platform by Murray Leinster
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
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