PERISHABLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does perishable mean? 

• PERISHABLE (noun)
  The noun PERISHABLE has 1 sense:

1. food that will decay rapidly if not refrigerated

  Familiarity information: PERISHABLE used as a noun is very rare.

• PERISHABLE (adjective)
  The adjective PERISHABLE has 1 sense:

1. liable to perish; subject to destruction or death or decay

  Familiarity information: PERISHABLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERISHABLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Food that will decay rapidly if not refrigerated

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

perishable; spoilable

Hypernyms ("perishable" is a kind of...):

food product; foodstuff (a substance that can be used or prepared for use as food)

• PERISHABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Liable to perish; subject to destruction or death or decay

Context example:

perishable foods such as butter and fruit

Similar:

biodegradable (capable of being decomposed by e.g. bacteria)

decayable; putrefiable; putrescible; spoilable (liable to decay or spoil or become putrid)

Also:

destructible (easily destroyed)

Antonym:

imperishable (not perishable)

Derivation:

perishability; perishableness (unsatisfactoriness by virtue of being subject to decay or spoilage or destruction)

 Context examples 

A dehydration process typically used to preserve a perishable material.

(Freeze-Drying, NCI Thesaurus)

You are a millionaire in immortality, and a millionaire whose fortune cannot be lost, whose fortune is less perishable than the stars and as lasting as space or time.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A smart shower at eleven had evidently quenched the enthusiasm of the young ladies who were to arrive at twelve, for nobody came, and at two the exhausted family sat down in a blaze of sunshine to consume the perishable portions of the feast, that nothing might be lost.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)