extinct
B1Meanings
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1
adj
(of e.g. volcanos) permanently inactive
an extinct volcano
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2
adj
being out or having grown cold
I threw my extinct cigarette into the stream.
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3
adj
Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking.
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4
adj
Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
My breath is corrupt, my dayes are extinct, the graues are ready for me.
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5
adj
Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, languages, etc.: no longer existing or in use; defunct, discontinued, obsolete; specifically, of a title of nobility: no longer having any person qualified to hold it.
Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
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6
adj
Of an animal or plant species or group of species, a group of people, a family, etc., having no living members, representatives, or descendants.
Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
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7
adj
Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.
Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct.
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8
adj
Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others.
[H]e may at lybertie / Paſſe ſaue without hys ieopardy / Tyll that he be from vs extyncte / And clerely out of helles precincte
Etymology
From Late Middle English extinct (“eliminated, eradicated, extinguished”), from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus (“extinguished, quenched; destroyed, killed; made extinct”), the perfect passive participles of extinguō, exstinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench; (figurative) to abolish; to destroy, kill”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + stinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench”) (from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push”)). The Middle English word displaced Middle English aqueint, aquenched (“extinct; extinguished”). Doublet of extinguish.
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