Perish

English

Verb

Perish (third-person singular simple present perishes, present participle perishing, simple past and past participle perished)

1. To pass away; to come to naught; to waste away; to decay and disappear.
2. (intransitive) To die; to cease to live.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     ...the ship struck upon a sand, and ... the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea.

Synonyms

• decease, pass away
• See also Thesaurus:die

Related terms

• perishable

Adverbs for Perish

desolately; miserably; simultaneously; ignominiously; inevitably; agonizingly.

Thesaurus

age, antiquate, be annihilated, be consumed, be destroyed, be done for, be gone, be killed, be lost, be no more, be wiped out, become extinct, become obsolete, break down, cease, cease to be, cease to exist, cease to live, collapse, come to naught, come to nothing, conk out, corrupt, croak, crumble, date, decay, decease, decline, decompose, dematerialize, demise, depart, depart this life, die, die away, die out, disappear, disintegrate, dispel, disperse, dissipate, dissolve, do a fade-out, dwindle, end, erode, evanesce, evaporate, exit, expire, fade, fade away, fade out, fall, fall asleep, flee, fly, fossilize, fust, go, go away, go out, go under, grow old, hide, leave no trace, leave the scene, lose currency, melt, melt away, molder, obsolesce, outdate, part, pass, pass away, pass on, pass out, pass over, peg out, peter out, put off mortality, putrefy, quit this world, retire from sight, return to dust, rot, run out, rust, sink, sink away, spoil, stop breathing, succumb, suffer an eclipse, superannuate, turn, up and die, vanish, vanish from sight, waste, waste away, wear away, yield the ghost

Etymology

< Middle English perishen < Old French periss-, stem of certain parts of perir < Latin perire (“to pass away, perish”) < per (“through”) + ire (“to go”); see iter.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Translations

Translations

Chinese: Mandarin: 殞 (zh), 殒 (zh) (yǔn), 死亡 (zh) (sǐwáng), 死 (zh) (sǐ) Cornish: merwel Czech: zaniknout (cs), zahynout (cs) Dutch: omkomen (nl), wegkwijnen (nl) Finnish: menehtyä (fi) French: périr (fr) German: umkommen (de), ums Leben kommen (de) Indonesian: binasa, musnah Italian: perire (it) Japanese: 亡びる (ja) (ほろびる, horobiru), 滅びる (ja) (ほろびる, horobiru), 死ぬ (ja) (しぬ, shinu)

Korean: 멸망하다 (ko) (myeolmang-hada) Old English: forweorþan (ang) Romanian: pieri (ro) Russian: погибать (ru) (pogibát') impf., погибнуть (ru) (pogíbnut') pf., пасть (ru) (past') pf., умирать (ru) (umirát') impf., умереть (ru) (umerét') pf., сгинуть (ru) (sgínut') pf. Spanish: perecer (es) Vietnamese: diệt vong (vi) Welsh: aballu (cy)

External links

• Perish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Perish in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• reship