[f. as prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which extinguishes.
1560. Whitehorne, Arte Warre (1588), 18 b. Heads [Captains], extinguishers of discention.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., A vij. This heat extinguisher.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., II. 257/1. The Glorious Great Extinguisher of Night.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 303. Quarrells and Distempers … prove Extinguishers.
1814. Sir R. Wilson, Priv. Diary, II. 341. The fat is blazing in the fire, and no extinguisher can be found.
1817. Byron, Lett. to Murray, 4 June. The name of their extinguisher was Gifford.
1887. Daily News, 7 March, 7/1. The Lewis Hand Fire Extinguisher.
2. spec. A hollow conical cap for extinguishing the light of a candle or lamp; also a similar object of large size formerly affixed to the railings of a house to enable the link-boys to extinguish their links.
1641. W. Cartwright, Ordinary, I. v. (1651), 17–8 In putting of ’m [candles] out … by The extinguisher.
1685. Lond. Gaz., No. 2068/4. One Closet Candlestick, with Snuffers and Extinguisher.
1739–40. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr. (1861), II. 88. Put out their flambeaux with great silver extinguishers.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xvi. Extinguishers are yet suspended before the doors of a few houses of the better sort.
1857. W. Collins, Dead Secret, I. i. She held the candlestick, so that the extinguisher lying loose in it rattled.
b. transf. and fig.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1700), 30. Cover it [the vital Flame] with an Extinguisher of Honour.
1774. Colman, Man of Business, Epil.
| Put not one grand extinguisher on plays; | |
| But with kind snuffers gently mend their blaze. |
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 May, 4/1. ‘Eigg Island,’ with its singular Scuir or peak hidden under a thick extinguisher of cloud.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1859. Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. ix. Extinguisher-topped towers.
1881. A. G. C. Liddell, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 473/2. Sharp extinguisher-like spires … shot into the sky.
1885. Daily News, 30 April, 4/8. Were painters pleased with the immeasurable height of the extinguisher hats of women when Richard II. was King…?
Hence Extinguishership. nonce-wd.
1825. New Monthly Mag., XIII. 193. God give his imperial extinguishership ‘a good deliverance.’
