dilapidating

present participle of dilapidate

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dilapidating
Verb
  • Scott’s face, in this shot, is a whole novel, disintegrating into tears before being shored up again, eventually rearranged into something resembling a welcoming smile that teeters on the edge of collapse.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026
  • The 110-floor south tower, struck shortly after the north tower by another plane, was disintegrating.
    — Diane Herbst, PEOPLE, 7 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • More than two months after authorities found dozens of decomposing bodies inside the South Chicago Chapel on the Far South Side, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office has identified all 55 people whose bodies were found inside the funeral home.
    — Todd Feurer, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Over 50 decomposing bodies were discovered earlier in the month at the funeral home and cemetery.
    — Gregory Royal Pratt, Chicago Tribune, 14 Oct. 2026
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
Verb
  • Experts told the Herald that the use of such cages as punishment could violate international laws against torture and degrading treatment.
    — Claire Healy, Miami Herald, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Local farms face ever degrading soil conditions, tougher markets and more extreme weather patterns.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 6 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • 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
  • 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
  • By Saturday night, Long Beach reported that seawater had entered homes and into streets, with the city’s Peninsula neighborhood being hard hit, and its boardwalk crumbling.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2026
  • The hotel’s journey from crumbling Presbyterian church to Silver Lake hotspot is more interesting, a soap opera that involves government red tape, some nuns and Katy Perry.
    — Mickey Rapkin, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • That global warming is diminishing them might sounds counterintuitive — climate change, after all, is worsening much of the world’s extreme weather.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2026
  • Winds will finally begin diminishing Friday evening and overnight.
    — Michael Autovino, CBS News, 15 Oct. 2026
Verb
  • 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
  • Delphi sits above a geologic vent, an X from which noxious gases escaped the earth, corrupting the minds of women who inhaled and pronounced their prophecies.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2026
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 19 Oct. 2026.

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