exterminator
Americannoun
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exterminators
plural
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a person or thing that exterminates.
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a person or business establishment specializing in the elimination of vermin, insects, etc., from a building, apartment, etc., especially by the controlled application of toxic chemicals.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of exterminator
From the Late Latin word exterminātor, dating back to 1605–15. See extermine, -ator
Vocabulary lists containing exterminator
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:
The second reports calling in a professional exterminator, but after a week or two the mice returned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
He started out as an exterminator in New York City and has spent his life immersed in rats.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
But his second act as humanitarian, house builder, Guinea worm exterminator and Nobel Peace Prize winner was a portrait of perseverance and grace.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2024
A man posing as a pest exterminator tried to gain access to a San Diego hotel that operates as a shelter for migrant families.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
She said maybe an exterminator came and took care of them in 2004.
From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling
The association added that when hotels encounter bedbugs, guests are relocated and exterminators are called, in accordance with health and safety guidelines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2024
In the game description, it says players - who take on the roles of exterminators - are tasked with treating "mysterious infestations caused by twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends".
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2024
Germany survived, grew, thrived; Germans carried on; the world had little use for those who wished to dwell on the extermination of European Jews, or for how to deal with the exterminators themselves.
From Slate ● Nov. 30, 2023
But she also represents their best chance of survival and moving where this domesticated breed belongs: inside homes, away from cars, cats, hawks, Florida heat and possibly government-hired exterminators.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 16, 2023
However, the recent development of resistance to these insecticides confronts the exterminators with the problem of where to go next.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
