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exterminator

UK/ɪkˈstɜːmɪˌneɪtə/US/ɪkˈstɝmɪˌneɪtɚ/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,948 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: exterminators

An exterminator is somebody employed to destroy pests. Call the exterminator, a pest exterminator, the exterminator's van.

It is the American word; Britain says pest controller, which sounds a good deal less final. The job is mostly about denying food and entry rather than about poison, since anything killed is replaced from outside if the way in stays open.

Definitions of exterminator

  1. 1nounexterminatorSomebody employed to destroy pests.B2+

    “We had to call an exterminator when we found cockroaches in the kitchen.”

exterminator is a worker.

Where it comes from

Latin exterminator comes from exterminare, to drive beyond the boundary — ex, out, plus terminus, a limit.

  1. Latin

    exterminātor

  2. English, today

    exterminator

Borrowed from Latin exterminātor. by surface analysis, exterminate + -or.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

exterminator in the wild

  • An individual who performs duties related to the management of a pest population is often called a pest exterminator or exterminator.

    Pest control

  • In modern developed countries, such a professional is otherwise known as a pest control operative or pest exterminator.

    Rat-catcher

  • The title story is about an insect exterminator, a job Burroughs himself once held.

    Exterminator!

  • The ride is heavily themed around the concept of the rider as a rat attempting to escape from exterminators.

    The Exterminator (roller coaster)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.