[f. EXTINGUISH v. + -MENT.] The action of extinguishing; the fact of being extinguished; = EXTINCTION.

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  1.  The quenching (of fire, light, anything burning or shining). Cf. EXTINGUISH v. 1.

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1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., XLIII. iv. Evermore, without extinguyshment, In burnyng tongues he shall be permanent.

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1665.  Sir T. Roe’s Voy. E. India, 443. Lamps … which have burned without extinguishment from many foregoing generations.

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1724.  T. Richers, Hist. Royal Geneal. Spain, 326. To endeavour the Extinguishment of those Flames.

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1870.  Daily News, 19 Aug., 6/1. An extensive conflagration in a provincial town, with the men skilled in extinguishment far away, is not a pleasant picture.

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  † b.  A means of extinguishing. Obs.

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1667.  Waterhouse, Fire Lond., 58. Application of remora’s and extinguishments, to both wind and fire.

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  2.  transf. and fig. Cf. EXTINGUISH v. 2.

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1503.  Hawes, Examp. Virt., xiii. 275. Theyr payne haue none extinguysshement.

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1546.  in Vicary’s Anat. (1888), App. viii. 218. The … vtter extingguysshement of the seyd grugge and dyspleasure.

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1607.  Topsell, Serpents (1653), 636. When once the wound beginneth to be purple, green, or black, it is a sign … of the extinguishment of the venom.

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a. 1639.  W. Whateley, Prototypes, II. xxvi. (1640), 70. An extinguishment of love.

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1850.  L. Hunt, Autobiog., x. (1860), 179. The final extinguishment of the king’s reason.

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  3.  The putting a total end to (something), blotting out of existence; suppression (of an institution).

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1537.  Acts Irel. 28 Hen. VIII., c. xiii. Statutes … made for the … extinguishment out of this land of the pretended power of the Bishop of Rome.

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1586.  Ferne, Blaz. Gentrie, 32. The extinguishment of anye one of them [foure complexions] is the destruction of the bodye.

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a. 1648.  Ld. Herbert, Hen. VIII. (1649), 397. That for extinguishments of all Ambiguities and doubts, it may be enacted [etc.].

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1741.  T. Robinson, Gavelkind, v. 66. A total Extinguishment of the Custom.

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1865.  Reader, 2 Sept., 253/2. Munitions of war, which not only influenced banefully at the time the fortunes of Prince Charlie, but led, by-and-bye, to their final extinguishment on the bard-sung field of Culloden.

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  b.  The putting an end to (a contract, right, etc.); abolition (of a law, custom, † tax). In Law also spec. ‘the annihilation of a collateral interest, or the supersedure of one interest by another and greater interest’ (Wharton, Law Lex.).

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1535.  Act 27 Hen. VIII., c. 10 § 1. The … extinguishment of all suche subtill practised feoffementes.

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1554.  in Depositions, etc. (Surtees Soc., No. 21), 57. For the … extinguishment of a mariage solempnized betwixt them in their infancies.

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1574.  trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 64 a. A release shall enure by waye of extinguishemente.

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1683.  T. Hunt, Def. Charter, 36. Charged with the extinguishment of many excellent Laws.

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1818.  Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), I. 428. A suspension, but not extinguishment of rights.

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1886.  Law Rep. Weekly Notes 35/2. The accounts were limited to the period before Michaelmas, 1881, the time from which the extinguishment took effect.

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  c.  The full discharge, ‘wiping out’ (of a debt or obligation).

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1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 266. To provide for the extinguishment of the existing debt.

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1847.  C. G. Addison, On Contracts, II. iv. § i. (1883), 664. The extinguishment of the principal obligation necessarily involving in it the discharge of the surety.

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1868.  Rogers, Pol. Econ., iv. (1876), 39. Reciprocal extinguishment of obligations.

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  † d.  The cutting off, putting an end to (a family, race, etc.); the fact of becoming extinct. Obs.

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1539.  Taverner, Gard. Wysed., I. 13 b. Syngle lyfe hathe these incommodyties … extinguyshment of bloud, a straunger to be thyne heyre.

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1612.  Davies, Why Ireland, etc. 210. Open Rebellion, wherein he perished himselfe, and made a final extinguishment of his house and honour.

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1630.  R. Johnson’s Kingd. & Commw., 114. By the extinguishment of the Picts, it reached also unto Tweed.

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  † e.  Annihilation (of the soul). Obs.

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1592.  Davies, Immort. Soul, xxx. § 4. When Death’s Form appears, she [the soul] feareth not An utter Quenching, or Extinguishment.

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1625.  Ussher, Answ. to Jesuit, 327 [329]. A most absolute extinguishment as well of the soule as of the body.

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