snuff out

1. 1.

   put an end to; kill

   “The Nazis snuffed out the life of many Jewish children”

   Synonymsextinguish

   Broaderextinguish

   Narrowerstampsmother
2. 2.

   put out, as of fires, flames, or lights

   “Too big to be extinguished at once, the forest fires at best could be contained”

   “quench the flames”

   “snuff out the candles”

   Synonymsblow outextinguishquench

   Narrowerstubdouseblack out

Questions about snuff out

What does snuff out mean?

snuff out means "put an end to; kill". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for snuff out?

Close synonyms include extinguish, blow out, extinguish, quench. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is snuff out a common word?

snuff out is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.