Perishes

Perishes is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb perish. The core sense is to cease to exist, to die, or to be destroyed. It can apply to living beings as well as to things that break down, with the idea of loss or end of existence. In addition to death, perish can describe spoilage or decay, especially of organic matter or food.

In usage, perish is typically intransitive: the subject perishes rather than perishes something. It can take a prepositional phrase to indicate cause or place, for example: "the sailors perished in the voyage," "the crops perish without rain," or "the milk perishes in warm weather." It conveys a sense of finality or drastic loss and is often used in formal, literary, or historical contexts. In everyday speech, people may prefer simpler terms such as die, disappear, or decay, depending on the nuance intended.

Etymology traces perish to Old French perir, from Latin perire, meaning to be destroyed or to die. The word has appeared in English since the Middle Ages and is common in religious, literary, and historical texts, where it contributes a solemn or dramatic tone.

Related concepts include perishables, which refers to items that are subject to spoilage, and perishability, the property of being perishable. The idiom perished the thought, meaning to reject or dismiss a notion, is a fixed expression that illustrates the broader rhetorical uses of the term.