dilapidating

present participle of dilapidate

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dilapidating
Verb
  • This difference sounds small, but preventing a few tenths of a degree of warming could keep polar ice caps from completely disintegrating, coral reefs from collapsing and other tipping points from triggering.
    Syris Valentine, Scientific American, 16 Oct. 2025
  • As gifts go, this one comes much belated—and with a high risk of disintegrating even as it is being unwrapped.
    Bobby Ghosh, Time, 14 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Another legend explains how in the distant past, the nefarious Lake Nyos was formed from the decomposing body of a Kom chief whose people had been tricked and murdered by the Bamessi tribe.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Thatch is made up of decomposing grass stems and roots on the soil surface.
    Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 22 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • But then a fresh corpse turns up, as well as a long-moldering skeleton, and the club members are off and running.
    Tom Gliatto, People.com, 27 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The alliance should also increase its training with an eye toward degrading or destroying the Kaliningrad facilities should direct hostilities break out.
    James Stavridis, Twin Cities, 13 Oct. 2025
  • The research revealed a strong correlation between microbial plastic-degrading potential and global plastic pollution levels, suggesting bacteria are adapting to what’s available.
    Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 9 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Because lose-lose situations are so endemic to the genre, a hint of relief can sometimes accompany the prospect of surrender to the putrefying mob.
    Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • Its crumbling buildings swallowed by greenery are starkly beautiful and deeply eerie, even more so as the cooler seasons creep in and sea mists descend.
    Maureen O'Hare, CNN Money, 18 Oct. 2025
  • Sclerotic growth, stagnant real wages, and crumbling public services are generating profound dissatisfaction.
    Anand Menon, Time, 18 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • Additionally, the invading trees and shrubs also compete with prairie plants for light, water, and space, often pushing the grassland plants out of the way and diminishing the habitat options available to animals that depend on native plants.
    Kelli Bender, PEOPLE, 17 Oct. 2025
  • Survey participants said reasons for the diminishing access included affordability, fears about not being taken seriously or the potential for involuntary hospitalization, the survey said.
    Ken Alltucker, USA Today, 16 Oct. 2025
Verb
  • But the church also taught that the power of music could be corrupting.
    Vann R. Newkirk II, The Atlantic, 18 Oct. 2025
  • Tales From Beyond the Pale co-creator Glenn McQuaid unleashes a Jason Voorhees whose appearance is concealed not by a hockey mask but a squiggly blur of video noise, corrupting the handheld footage of him stalking college kids through the woods.
    A.A. Dowd, Vulture, 3 Oct. 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Dilapidating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dilapidating. Accessed 24 Oct. 2025.

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