extinguish
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Latin extinguo (“to put out (what is burning), quench, extinguish, deprive of life, destroy, abolish”), from ex (“out”) + stinguere (“to put out, quench, extinguish”). Doublet of extinct.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]extinguish (third-person singular simple present extinguishes, present participle extinguishing, simple past and past participle extinguished)
- (transitive)
- To stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench.
- (figurative) To eclipse or obscure (someone or something).
- A beauty that extinguishes all others by comparison
- The rays of the sun were extinguished by the thunder clouds.
- (figurative) To kill (someone).
- Synonym: (obsolete) extinct
- (figurative) To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy.
- Synonyms: (obsolete) extinct; see also Thesaurus:destroy
- She extinguished all my hopes.
- They intended to extinguish the enemy by force of numbers
- (psychology) To bring about the extinction of (a conditioned reflex).
- Many patients can extinguish their phobias after a few months of treatment.
- (figurative) To suppress (something, as feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.); to quench.
- Synonym: (obsolete) extinct
- (figurative, chiefly law) To abolish or make void (a law, a legal right, etc.); also, to cancel (a creditor's claim, a licence, etc.).
- Synonym: (obsolete) extinct
- 1668 December 19, James Dalrymple, “Mr. Alexander Seaton contra Menzies” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575:
- The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Diſcharge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extinguiſh the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and conſequently of all the reſt, they being all correi debendi, lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Diſcharged as to one, and ſtand as to all the reſt.
- 2024 May 11, Barney Jopson, “Catalonia separatist deal tested at ballot box”, in FT Weekend, page 2:
- If the amnesty becomes law as expected this month or in June, it promises to extinguish the charges Puigdemont faces of disobedience and misuse of public funds.
- (intransitive, reflexive) To die out.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
|
to kill (someone) — see kill
|
to bring about the extinction of (a conditioned reflex)
|
to suppress (something, as feelings, a person’s spirit, a state of affairs, etc.) — see suppress
to die out — see die out
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading
[edit]- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “extinguish”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “extinguish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
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