dilapidating

present participle of dilapidate

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for dilapidating
Verb
  • The 110-floor south tower, struck shortly after the north tower by another plane, was disintegrating.
    Diane Herbst, PEOPLE, 7 Sep. 2026
  • His relationship with his wife (Anna Faris) and kids is disintegrating and a National Enquirer journo keeps threatening to run an exposé of his infidelities.
    Jessica Kiang, Variety, 5 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Fifteen months later, 56 decomposing bodies were found at their South Chicago Chapel.
    Susana Mendoza, Chicago Tribune, 8 Sep. 2026
  • As excavations for the foundation got underway, bones and decomposing bodies were found, releasing a horrid odor and spreading yellow fever across the island.
    Victoria Davies, Rolling Stone, 31 Aug. 2026
Verb
  • Anna Anosowicz’s highly resourceful production design makes excellent use of existing midcentury brutalist architecture and far more ancient, enduring structures, all moldering under superficially futuristic window-dressing.
    Guy Lodge, Variety, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Developer John Dewberry is responsible for the site, and has a reputation for leaving half-finished, moldering construction projects in his wake.
    AJ Willingham, AJC.com, 15 July 2026
Verb
  • In 1963, Gloria Steinem went undercover for a journalism assignment as a Playboy bunny, exposing degrading working conditions that forced policy changes.
    Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026
  • While some look at this aesthetic as idealizing a time where women had fewer rights and independence, many trad wives do not think their roles are degrading.
    Alyssa Goldberg, USA Today, 3 Sep. 2026
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
  • About 70% of Florida’s reef is crumbling without enough living coral to rebuild what’s lost to erosion.
    Nicolás Rivero, Miami Herald, 5 Sep. 2026
  • The clean demarcations between recreation and reality necessary to protect his previous subjects come crumbling down in the face of a larger-than-life figure like Ryan.
    Marshall Shaffer, IndieWire, 3 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Seemingly, the only thing that could slow down the automobile takeover was diminishing fuel supplies, fear of which had become a fixation of American oil companies and government officials after the Armistice.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 4 Sep. 2026
  • Having already weathered so many attacks aimed at diminishing its power, the remaining Iranian leadership, which learned to tolerate hardship in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, is unlikely to be cowed by further aggression.
    JAMES F. JEFFREY, Foreign Affairs, 3 Sep. 2026
Verb
  • Instead, in trying to explain what made both Murdoch and Lamb tick in those early days, Boyle and Graham show us just how intoxicating and corrupting this kind of success can be.
    Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2026
  • The Apology is Plato’s version of the speech of self-defense Socrates gives when he is tried by the city of Athens for corrupting the youth and not believing in the gods.
    Agnes Callard, The New York Review of Books, 18 Aug. 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 12 Sep. 2026.

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