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
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
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Words for the High School Graduate
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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:
The task today is to continue advancing the cause that he identified at Gettysburg: “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Australia's top order showed a greater runscoring intent early in the chase only to perish to a mixture of poor strokeplay and impressive bowling.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 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
The global scientific consensus is that most coral reefs would perish at warming of 1.5C above preindustrial levels -- a threshold just years away.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2025
He clanked to his feet and shouted, “Come follow me, dear friends, and we shall find our goal, or else shall perish bravely in the charge!”
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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
This Cerebro-Nervous graft perishes only because the Vegetative body on which it is installed has come to the end of its power to sustain the life of the Nervous organism picketed upon it.
From Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Arabella Kenealy
They have survived when virtually every other contemporary financial claim has perished.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
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
Instead, six of the top 10 perished by the fourth round at Flushing Meadows - including Fritz, who squandered a two-set lead against Argentina's Francisco Cerundolo in round three.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
If we’re to believe what’s chronicled in “Freefall” by former Boeing employees, aviation experts, crash investigators and the families of those who perished in the 737 Max crashes, there’s already a thin line of accountability.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
If this bird within him had died, would he have perished?
From "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse
They looked absolutely freezing, which was not a surprise as it was a perishing January night in Lancashire.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2026
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
It’s a symbiotic relationship that won’t be perishing anytime soon.
From Salon ● Dec. 2, 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
“Will you tell us about the new house, Bull? I’m perishing from curiosity,” Lillian spoke.
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.
