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 decompose
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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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of perish
Reporters are gathering details about the beloved parents, grandparents and neighbors who perished in the fires.
—
Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Recent finds in this section of the city have included a bakery, a laundry shop, two villas, and even the remains of three people who perished in the eruption.
—Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 17 Jan. 2025
That is up from 2023, one of the safest years for flying in history, with only one fatal crash involving a turboprop plane in which 72 people perished.
—Barbara Peterson, AFAR Media, 17 Jan. 2025
An additional five animals at a private animal sanctuary in Colorado — two tigers, one lion, a mountain lion and a fox — also perished from eating the food.
—Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for perish 
Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Recent finds in this section of the city have included a bakery, a laundry shop, two villas, and even the remains of three people who perished in the eruption.
—Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 17 Jan. 2025
That is up from 2023, one of the safest years for flying in history, with only one fatal crash involving a turboprop plane in which 72 people perished.
—Barbara Peterson, AFAR Media, 17 Jan. 2025
An additional five animals at a private animal sanctuary in Colorado — two tigers, one lion, a mountain lion and a fox — also perished from eating the food.
—Susanne Rust, Los Angeles Times, 18 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for perish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perish
Verb
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Kimberly was previously married to Steven Roads, who died from a heart attack in 2005.—
Lauryn Overhultz,
Fox News,
28 Jan. 2025
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Further details about the worker who died may be released in due course.—
Barbara A. Perry,
Newsweek,
28 Jan. 2025
Verb
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The bodies had already begun to decompose, suggesting that the people had died some time before they were discovered.—
Sheldon H. Jacobson,
Chicago Tribune,
20 Jan. 2025
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Ordinarily, plants exposed to a fire’s heat begin to decompose and become fuel, but Phos-Chek acts as a coating, creating a barrier that consumes the heat energy.—
Minyvonne Burke,
NBC News,
17 Jan. 2025
Verb
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More light rain fell periodically through the Bay Area on Monday, continuing a pattern that began Friday and ended a nearly month-long stretch without precipitation.—
Rick Hurd,
The Mercury News,
4 Feb. 2025
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But longer-term bond rates fell, because tariffs can weaken economic growth.—
David Goldman,
CNN,
3 Feb. 2025
Verb
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Other groups disintegrated amid more prosaic conflicts over priorities and egos.—
Charles Homans,
New York Times,
19 Jan. 2025
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The rocket system's upper stage appears to have disintegrated somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico or possibly the Caribbean Sea.—
Jason Abbruzzese,
NBC News,
17 Jan. 2025
Verb
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The scent of rotting flesh attracts pollinators, like beetles and flies, that lay their eggs in dead animals.—
Sara Hashemi,
Smithsonian Magazine,
27 Jan. 2025
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But this week in Sydney, a city known for its beaches and vibrant food scene, crowds flocked to catch a glimpse — and a whiff — of a rare flower whose scent has been lovingly compared to that of rotting flesh.—
Max Butterworth,
NBC News,
23 Jan. 2025
Verb
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What doesn’t decay this winter can be mulched up next spring.—
Jeff Lowenfels,
Anchorage Daily News,
22 Sep. 2022
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In particular, many theorists have wondered how the great complexity of life can be reconciled with the laws of thermodynamics that suggest that all systems must inevitably decay to a state of greatest disorder.—
The Physics arXiv Blog,
Discover Magazine,
29 Apr. 2022
Thesaurus Entries Near perish
Cite this Entry
“Perish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perish. Accessed 9 Feb. 2025.
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