- present participle of perish.
perishing
Americanadjective
adjective
-
informal (of weather, etc) extremely cold
-
slang (intensifier qualifying something undesirable)
it's a perishing nuisance!
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of perishing
late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; see origin at perish, -ing 2
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.
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
And she claimed her second victim in her second over, Sarah Bryce perishing for 13 from nine balls when a mis-timed shot resulted in a leading edge that was easily gathered by wicketkeeper Nicole Faltum.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 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
“When a man’s alone on these flats, with a light head and a light stomach, perishing of cold and want, he hears nothin’ all night, but guns firing, and voices calling.
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
