Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A desire for self-destruction, often accompanied by feelings of depression, hopelessness, and self-reproach.
- noun The desire, often unconscious, for the death of another person, such as a parent, toward whom one has unconscious hostility.
- noun A suicidal urge thought to drive certain people to put themselves consistently into dangerous situations.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun psychology A
desire , especially subconscious, for the death of oneself or of someone else.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (psychoanalysis) an unconscious urge to die
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Translation of German Todeswunsch.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
A calque of German Todeswunsch.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word death wish.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
treeseed commented on the word death wish
(n): the conscious or unconscious desire for the death of oneself or of another
January 24, 2008