perish
Americanverb (used without object)
-
perishes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
perished,
past participle, past
-
perishing
present participle
-
to die or be destroyed through violence, privation, etc..
to perish in an earthquake.
- Synonyms:
- expire
-
to pass away or disappear.
an age of elegance that has forever perished.
- Antonyms:
- appear
-
to suffer destruction or ruin.
His valuable paintings perished in the fire.
-
to suffer spiritual death.
Save us, lest we perish.
idioms
verb
-
to be destroyed or die, esp in an untimely way
-
(tr sometimes followed by with or from) to cause to suffer
we were perished with cold
-
to rot
leather perishes if exposed to bad weather
-
may it never be or happen thus
noun
Synonym Usage
See die 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
perishsimple
-
perishessimple
-
have perishedperfect
-
has perishedperfect
-
am perishingprogressive
-
are perishingprogressive
-
is perishingprogressive
-
have been perishingperfect progressive
-
has been perishingperfect progressive
Past
-
perishedsimple
-
had perishedperfect
-
was perishingprogressive
-
were perishingprogressive
-
had been perishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of perish
1200–50; Middle English perissen < Old French periss-, long stem of perir < Latin perīre to perish, literally, go through, spend fully, equivalent to per- per- + īre to go
Explanation
To perish means to die. Your brother's goldfish might perish if he forgets to feed it — so be sure to remind him that Goldie needs her dinner! Perish comes from a Latin verb that means "to pass away." Many passengers on the Titanic perished after the ship hit an iceberg. Perish can also be used figuratively, as when an op-ed argues that the idea of the American Dream perished in the 21st century. People also sometimes use this word simply to be dramatic. You might, for instance, tell your mom that you'll perish if you aren't allowed to spend the weekend at your best friend's house.
Vocabulary lists containing perish
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Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Composer Shankar Mahadevan said "every Indian is heartbroken today", adding that her music would "never perish as long as humanity exists" and that she would "live forever, with her incredible voice echoing across the world".
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
The global scientific consensus is that most coral reefs would perish at warming of 1.5C above preindustrial levels -- the ambitious, long-term limit countries agreed to pursue under the 2015 Paris climate accord.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
Evolution occurs through random variation and natural selection: The strong survive and reproduce; the weak perish.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026
Instead, there are scores of planets and moons where humans, if exposed to local conditions without life support, would perish immediately.
From Slate ● Dec. 9, 2025
“I’ve convinced them that without you as translator, we will all perish in Virginia,” he says as the clamps open and fall away.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
Another is a pungent work of terror about a cursed man who inexplicably perishes in the village’s crypt, forcing the townspeople to investigate by disinterring the bodies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
"We need to get the food out as soon as we can before it perishes," Steele said.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026
When the cells die, their myelin production perishes with them, causing myelin sheaths to break down with nothing to replenish them.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 28, 2024
West of the Cascades, many a plant perishes due to excessive rain in winter, even though it’s cold hardy and “drought-tolerant.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
The enthusiasm with which the true artist starves for his art, or the martyr perishes for his conviction, can never be fully explained from the empirical standpoint.
From A Review of the Systems of Ethics Founded on the Theory of Evolution by C. M. Williams
I did not know then how many people had perished, but I knew countless families would be grieving that day.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
Saud survived until lunch but Babar perished 40 minutes before the interval - bowled by Tongue - gesticulating at the pitch.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Family members say three of Lobga’s uncles perished during a defining Chinese crackdown on Tibet in 1959—when the young Dalai Lama fled to India—and other relatives were imprisoned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
The feat followed trial and error that initially saw him mollycoddle corals in stress-free environments, but those easily perished in the ocean once transplanted.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
On other nights it was still, with such a stillness as one imagines as existing before the stars began to form, or after everything has perished.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
They looked absolutely freezing, which was not a surprise as it was a perishing January night in Lancashire.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2026
All that’s clear is massive landmarks are perishing and that you need to run.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2024
The young meat-eater had chomped off the hind legs of two parrot-like dinosaurs called caenagnathids before perishing itself.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 8, 2023
Levin yelled out into the roar, anything to take his mind off the thought of perishing in a landslide.
From Slate ● Nov. 26, 2022
“Tell me about the house, sugah. I’m still perishing from curiosity.”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
