Fumigation Definition & Meaning

Other Words from fumigate

fumigation \ ˌfyü-mə-ˈgā-shən

\ noun

fumigator \ ˈfyü-mə-ˌgā-tər

\ noun

Examples of fumigate in a Sentence

All the hospital rooms had to be fumigated. We had to fumigate our apartment to get rid of the ants.

Recent Examples on the Web Instead of trying to fumigate away the dangers lurking in the soil each year, growers can throw out last year’s substrate and put in a new batch. — Sam Deanstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2022 Before sending containers on their way, workers at the port of departure sometimes fumigate cargo boxes with pesticides, especially if the container is loaded with food, animal feed, or timber. — Chris Baraniuk, Wired, 16 July 2022 Environmental officials have started to fumigate the area. — Chinedu Asadu, ajc, 24 Apr. 2022 Engulfing the stations were fumes from burning harmala, a plant widely used in Turkmenistan to fumigate homes and public spaces to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases. — NBC News, 15 Mar. 2022 Engulfing the stations were fumes from burning harmala, a plant widely used in Turkmenistan to fumigate homes and public spaces to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases. — Alexander Vershinin, ajc, 15 Mar. 2022 Late in life, Arbuckle’s first wife, Minta Durfee, repeated the preposterous tale that Rappe had spread so much venereal disease at Keystone that Mack Sennett had to fumigate the studio. — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2021 The paddle, which looks like a hairbrush with spikes, was used in the late 1800s to puncture mail so that postal workers could fumigate it to try to contain yellow fever outbreaks. — Washington Post, 10 Sep. 2020 Bedbugs are disgusting and expensive and exhausting, and require you to role-play your own private disaster movie, nuke most of your belongings and fumigate the rest. — Laurie Penny, Wired, 18 June 2020 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fumigate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for fumigate

borrowed from Latin fūmigātus, past participle of fūmigāre "to subject to smoke, get rid of with smoke," from fūmus "smoke" + -igāre, causative suffix, probably generalized from rēmigāre "to use oars, row," verbal derivative of rēmig-, rēmex "oarsman, rower," from rēmus "oar" + -ig-, -ex, agent noun derivative from the base of agere "to be in motion, do, perform" — more at fume entry 1, agent

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