DILAPIDATING Synonyms: 63 Similar and Opposite Words

dilapidating

verb

present participle of dilapidate

as in disintegrating

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dilapidating

Verb

The stars have grown lethargic and limp, with lesions spread across their bodies, their arms falling off or disintegrating.

— Joseph Ogilvy, Condé Nast Traveler, 28 Oct. 2026
Segan’s thriller takes as its central dramatic question the tension between the analog and the digital, the New York that’s coming into being in the 2020s and the New York that’s disintegrating to bring it to life.

— Sarah Shachat, IndieWire, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of disintegrating

Verb

The body of 76-year-old Ronald Tyler was already decomposing by the time his daughter Terri found out where he was being stored.

— Dave Savini, CBS News, 27 Oct. 2026
If soil amendment is needed, first add compost and decomposing leaves to the garden soil.

— Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of decomposing

Verb

No less slippery are his matinée-idol looks, which can turn wolfish or ratty on a dime, as if his beauty were moldering away from within.

— Justin Chang, New Yorker, 25 Sep. 2026
Getting the rotting food off racks towering six stories high required hundreds of workers in protective suits to dislodge the moldering food.

— Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of moldering

Verb

Faulkner said he is fed up with Citation’s yearslong pattern of degrading his pastures.

— Nick Bowlin, ProPublica, 27 Oct. 2026
Online critics characterized the Polymarket contract as degrading and questioned why celebrity ambassadors would associate themselves with the company.

— ABC News, ABC News, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of degrading

Verb

Repeating the experiment with other plants, including tomatoes and wheat, yielded similar results—but an encounter with putrefying animal tissues had no effect.

— Joanna Thompson, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2026
East of Eden is a tome obsessed with guilt, sin, ambition, race, the land as healing and capitalism as putrefying, the nature of fate and the question of free will, and the role money and inheritance play in either our corruption or our cleansing.

— Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2026

Definition of putrefying

Verb

Nearly a third of its education budget is eaten up by pensions, so its poorer schools are crumbling.

— The Week US, TheWeek, 26 Oct. 2026
In Frankfurt, a gray city crumbling at the corners and still finding its footing after the war, though somehow doing its best to pretend all is well, Mann and Erika are greeted by the mayor and hustled off to a press conference.

— Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of crumbling

Verb

Kikuchi makes Haru’s occasionally mortifying romantic pursuit both funny and affecting, embracing the character’s impulsive, sometimes ridiculous behavior without diminishing the depth of her loss.

— Lisa Wong Macabasco, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2026
The good news is that its strongest winds and heaviest rain will remain over the Atlantic, with impacts along our coastline gradually diminishing.

— Kate Bilo, CBS News, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of diminishing

Verb

But there’s a difference between drinking before entering the ring once and corrupting bullfighting for years.

— Stephen Bates, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2026
Documentarian Alex Gibney is no stranger to dissections of corrupting power — from his feature dives into Enron, Elizabeth Holmes and Scientology.

— Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of corrupting

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.

Browse Nearby Words

dilapidates

dilapidating

dilapidation

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Dilapidating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dilapidating. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of dilapidating

verb

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

wraith

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Pwn, Skibidi, Girlboss and Other Words Added to the 2026 Scrabble Dictionary

The Words of the Week - Oct. 30

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Popular

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes