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
Among their finds is a fire extinguisher dating from 1942, newspapers from the week after D-Day, and a tin of "whole chicken in jelly" - fortunately empty.
From BBC ● May 4, 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
Although he will see a fire extinguisher with legs.
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
And I'm afraid my hair's loosening up, too, where your fire-extinguisher wet it.
From Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures by Edgar Franklin
Well, her father went into the fire-extinguisher thing with Dad," Alix elucidated, "and evidently she and Justin have had deep, soulful thoughts about it.
From Sisters by Kathleen Thompson Norris
The ordinary fire-extinguisher of commerce gave me the hint as to how the problem could be solved.
From Humorous Ghost Stories by Dorothy Scarborough
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.
