perish

English

Etymology

From Middle English perishen, from Old French periss-, stem of certain parts of perir, from Latin perīre (“to pass away, perish”), present active infinitive of pereō, from per (“through”) + eō (“to go”); see iter.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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Verb

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

1. (intransitive) 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.

3. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to perish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

Synonyms

• decease, pass away
• See also Wikisaurus:die

Derived terms

• perish the thought

Related terms

• perishable

Translations

pass away

• Catalan: perir (ca)
• Dutch: vergaan (nl), bederven (nl)
• French: périr (fr)
• German: verderben (de), schlecht werden (de) (food)
• Indonesian: binasa, musnah
• Italian: perire (it)

• Latgalian: gaist
• Latvian: zust (lv)
• Lithuanian: žūti (lt)
• Portuguese: perecer (pt)
• Romanian: pieri (ro)
• Russian: погибнуть (ru) (pogíbnut') pf.
• Spanish: perecer (es)

die

• Dutch: omkomen (nl), sterven (nl)
• German: umkommen (de), ums Leben kommen (de), verenden (de)(animals)

• Polish: zginąć (pl)
• Spanish: perecer (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Catalan: perir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 殞 (cmn), 殒 (cmn) (yǔn), 死亡 (cmn) (sǐwáng), 死 (cmn) (sǐ)

• Cornish: merwel
• Czech: zaniknout (cs), zahynout (cs)
• Dutch: wegkwijnen (nl)
• Finnish: menehtyä (fi)
• French: périr (fr)
• 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., пасть (ru) (past') pf., умирать (ru) (umirát') impf., умереть (ru) (umerét') pf., сгинуть (ru) (sgínut') pf.
• 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