perishing
causing destruction, ruin, extreme discomfort, or death: lost in the perishing cold.
Origin of perishing
1Other words from perishing
- per·ish·ing·ly, adverb
- non·per·ish·ing, adjective
- un·per·ish·ing, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use perishing in a sentence
The mere outer friendship may in some degree—greater or less—survive; but the singular love in it has perishingly dropped away.
Pierre; or The Ambiguities | Herman MelvilleAbout mid-day a wind sprang up, and the water, fed by the melting snows, was perishingly cold.
Through the Heart of Patagonia | H. Hesketh PrichardYou were neither a good thing nor a bad thing: perishingly passive.
I, Mary MacLane | Mary MacLane
British Dictionary definitions for perishing
/ (ˈpɛrɪʃɪŋ) /
informal (of weather, etc) extremely cold
slang (intensifier qualifying something undesirable): it's a perishing nuisance!
Derived forms of perishing
- perishingly, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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