🇬🇧 Perish meaning: English Vocabulary Flash Card

Perish means to die or be completely gone forever, usually in a serious or sad way, like when a plant dries up and dies, or when old food spoils and has to be thrown away.

My dignity perished when I confidently answered “47” and the teacher asked, “To the question: What’s 2 + 2?”

The villain shouted, “Prepare to perish!” and my cat yawned and walked away, completely unimpressed.

All my homework excuses perished when my teacher said, “Great, you can write them in an essay.”

All hopes of a quiet afternoon perished when my cousin arrived with a drum set and unlimited energy.

Most dinosaurs perished about 66 million years ago when a huge asteroid hit Earth—scientists study their fossils to learn how and why they died.

A little girl held the last seed for the sparrows as winter came. One by one the sparrows perish on the cold fence; she cried when eggs perish in the empty nest. Her store went low; food piles perish, leaves perish in the snow. She wraps the last bird, refusing to let it perish — and it breathes, alive.

This word is at the C2 level, which means it represents the highest mastery of English. It’s often used in specialized or highly formal contexts and helps you communicate with precision and subtlety, much like a native speaker.

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