douse

They needed to douse the fire before it spread further to wooden structures that could have caused the whole cathedral to collapse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

A fire extinguisher was used to douse the blaze.

From BBC ● May 13, 2026

Julian wants to destroy the unfinished Christophers, but can’t bring himself to douse the canvases in kerosene and light the match.

From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2026

The earlier disaster may have helped douse a decades-long conflict between Aceh's separatists and the Indonesian government, but a simmering mistrust of Jakarta lingers.

From Barron's ● Feb. 25, 2026

A team of medical orderlies installed tan shades on each of the two windows and lowered them to douse the room in depressing shadows.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

He no longer douses his sponge with dish liquid.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025

Today, the tree foundation’s Green Blocks program douses neighborhoods in green, providing hundreds of free trees ranging from species like Bing cherry and fig to white pine, cedar and fir.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024

The Philippous’ kinetic style mashes genre cinema with beloved intellectual property, douses the combination with accelerant and lights a match; it’s the product of their personalities as much as YouTube’s milieu.

From New York Times ● Aug. 2, 2023

More playful than pedantic, Rashid douses his work in a heavy helping of humor — and with it comes the quiet guilt of catching yourself amused by scenes that are both funny and horrifying.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 27, 2021

I shake it, and when he pulls away, his mother—her eyes still locked on me—unsnaps a keychain-Purell and vigorously douses Jordan in it, practically giving him an entire hospital bath.

From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle

A series of herring gulls have been found doused in oil in the west of the Isle of Man, prompting concerns from conservationists.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

The “lentils,” as Mars calls them, are then doused in a sugary coating and loaded into huge rotating drums, or pans, to be colored.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026

That made it 92-85 and effectively doused the Lakers’ comeback.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026

“The Mountain” is, as expected, heavily doused with notions on the concept of death.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026

One of the smaller fires had already been doused, and a team of warriors was now battling the main one near the giant tent.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

"Wildfire in Suffolk burns near nuclear plant" the Guardian says, printed below a photo of firefighters dousing flames engulfing a cluster of trees.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

Regional firefighting chief Marc Vermeulen warned his teams would still have to spend several days dousing water on remaining flames inside the forest as well as at its edges to avoid it picking up again.

From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026

One video showed him at a nightclub, dancing on a stage wearing a New York Yankees shirt with the name “Cangrejo”—Spanish for “Crab”—on the back and dousing himself with a bottle of water.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026

The 1939 movie shows Dorothy melting the Wicked Witch by dousing her in water.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025

Depressed by the turn of conversation, people started gathering the leavings of their meal, dousing the beach wood with sand, and getting ready to return to whatever families or caretakers or safe flops they had.

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi