1
as in to die
to stop living
12 people perished in the plane crash
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2
as in to decompose
chiefly British
to go through decomposition
after being left out in the summer heat, the milk perished and had to be thrown out
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of perish
Sadly, five weeks after that visit was the day that Kobe and Gianna perished.
—
Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 24 Feb. 2025
The novel is about a lion in winter—an American soldier, Colonel Cantwell, wounded and worn out by war and slowly perishing of heart disease.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
Twenty-seven people perished, including the Minch family.
—Todd Richmond, Chicago Tribune, 11 Mar. 2025
After the 17th Mickey is presumed to have perished in an ice cave, an 18th is prematurely printed out, leading to a duplicate situation that’s supposed to result in the automatic execution of all copies.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for perish
Wendy Bowman, Robb Report, 24 Feb. 2025
The novel is about a lion in winter—an American soldier, Colonel Cantwell, wounded and worn out by war and slowly perishing of heart disease.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
Twenty-seven people perished, including the Minch family.
—Todd Richmond, Chicago Tribune, 11 Mar. 2025
After the 17th Mickey is presumed to have perished in an ice cave, an 18th is prematurely printed out, leading to a duplicate situation that’s supposed to result in the automatic execution of all copies.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 7 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for perish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perish
Verb
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Deaths were reported in Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama and Missouri, where three people died Friday when an EF-3 tornado with peak winds of 140 mph hit.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA TODAY,
17 Mar. 2025
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Michelle is morally and ethically confused, but decides that the greater good of the world depends on her brother dying.—
Lea Veloso,
StyleCaster,
17 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Crimping is the process of severing a crop at the base and laying it over to create a decomposing thatch/mulch layer for the garden without disturbing the soil.—
Anthony Reardon,
Kansas City Star,
21 Mar. 2025
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Even after your trash can is emptied, the bacteria and decomposing debris can be left behind in trace amounts, which causes the odors to remain.—
Kamron Sanders,
Better Homes & Gardens,
18 Mar. 2025
Verb
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Amid controversy and lukewarm reviews, the opening weekend haul falls short of Tim Burton’s Dumbo, which opened to $45 million in 2019.—
Mitchell Peters,
Billboard,
23 Mar. 2025
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As 2016 research from Personality and Individual Differences explains, cognitive styles fall on a broad spectrum: Impulsivity vs. reflectivity.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes,
23 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The second phase was meant to pave the way to an end to the war, although the truce disintegrated when Israeli forces resumed airstrikes on Gaza.—
Chantal Da Silva,
NBC news,
27 Mar. 2025
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The piece was about the cycle of life—the apple would rot and eventually disintegrate.—
David Sheff,
ARTnews.com,
24 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The story revolves around a town where the inhabitants have been mysteriously disappearing and rumours abound that there are ghosts under the lake eating human heads and leaving the rotting corpses floating on the water’s surface.—
Liz Shackleton,
Deadline,
16 Mar. 2025
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The window company used this preservative to prevent wood rot in both the window frames and the sashes.—
Tim Carter,
Hartford Courant,
15 Mar. 2025
Verb
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What doesn’t decay this winter can be mulched up next spring.—
Jeff Lowenfels,
Anchorage Daily News,
22 Sep. 2022
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In particular, many theorists have wondered how the great complexity of life can be reconciled with the laws of thermodynamics that suggest that all systems must inevitably decay to a state of greatest disorder.—
The Physics arXiv Blog,
Discover Magazine,
29 Apr. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Perish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perish. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.
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