1
as in to die
to stop living
12 people perished in the plane crash
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to disintegrate
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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Recent Examples of perish
The pope, at this very moment, is having the fallen part of the Colosseum rebuilt; half a dozen mason’s apprentices, without any scaffolding, are righting the colossus on whose shoulders a nation, transformed into slave laborers, perished.
—
Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Those who perished include 90-year-old Doreen Ellis, a Crown Heights resident with dementia who wandered out of her apartment into the frigid air Sunday night.
—Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 27 Jan. 2026
Martin Farquhar Tupper, a poet and an antiquarian favored by Queen Victoria, argued that Rapa Nui was the remnant of a lost continent whose people had perished.
—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026
Everything there fell apart and perished, as though the steppe were a field of deadly frequency, annihilating, on a molecular level, any object that happened into it.
—Literary Hub, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for perish
Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Those who perished include 90-year-old Doreen Ellis, a Crown Heights resident with dementia who wandered out of her apartment into the frigid air Sunday night.
—Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 27 Jan. 2026
Martin Farquhar Tupper, a poet and an antiquarian favored by Queen Victoria, argued that Rapa Nui was the remnant of a lost continent whose people had perished.
—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026
Everything there fell apart and perished, as though the steppe were a field of deadly frequency, annihilating, on a molecular level, any object that happened into it.
—Literary Hub, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for perish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perish
Verb
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Giuffre died by suicide last year at age 41.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
31 Jan. 2026
-
Lauryn Hill will perform a tribute to D'Angelo, who died of cancer in October at the age of 51, and Roberta Flack, who died in February at age 88.—
Chelsea Hylton,
CBS News,
31 Jan. 2026
Verb
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As in a seventeenth-century poem by John Donne, George Herbert, or Andrew Marvell, the fraught human body is a microcosm, a mirror to the larger disintegrating world spirit.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
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While other researchers have previously developed RFID capsules, the human digestive tract couldn’t disintegrate them, so all their components needed to travel the length of the body and exit in feces, or accumulate inside the body.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
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With a light snow falling outside McCamish Pavilion, Henri Veesaar gave North Carolina (17-4, 5-3 ACC) a devastating 1-2 punch on the inside with 20 points and 12 rebounds.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
1 Feb. 2026
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These cycles, which last about 11 years, mark periods of rising and falling solar activity.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
1 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The following month, on April 17, 1996, two county workers stumbled across the decomposing remains of Kenneth Smith.—
Christine Pelisek,
PEOPLE,
30 Jan. 2026
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The body was decomposed, a fire official said.—
Joe Marusak,
Charlotte Observer,
28 Jan. 2026
Verb
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His half-brother, Christopher Benitez, 27, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital just after midnight on Thursday, the outlets reported.—
Latoya Gayle,
PEOPLE,
30 Jan. 2026
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The Sixers could have easily succumbed to Sacramento’s fourth-quarter run.—
Tony Jones,
New York Times,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The water was yellow and smelled like rotting eggs.—
Rhea Mogul,
CNN Money,
1 Feb. 2026
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If the center is rotting out, add a little potting soil and plant flowers right in the stump.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
31 Jan. 2026
Verb
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After Violette’s exhibition closed last June, the sculpture was transported to a roadside plot in Ithaca, the site of the former Cortright Electric company, where it will be left to decay.—
Rachel Wetzler,
Artforum,
1 Feb. 2026
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The Benefits Of Planting Over A Tree Stump Planting over an old tree stump has many benefits beyond disguising it, because decaying wood contributes to the soil life cycle.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
31 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Perish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perish. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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