Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To die or be destroyed, especially in a violent or untimely manner.
  • intransitive verb To pass from existence; disappear gradually.
  • intransitive verb Chiefly British To spoil or deteriorate.
  • intransitive verb To bring to destruction; destroy.
  • idiom (perish the thought) Used to express the wish that one not even think about something.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of perishing: in the following slang phrase.
  • An obsolete form of pierce.
  • To pass away; come to naught; waste away; decay and disappear.
  • To cease to live; die.
  • Synonyms Expire, Decease, etc. See die.
  • To bring to naught; injure; destroy; kill.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To cause perish.
  • intransitive verb To be destroyed; to pass away; to become nothing; to be lost; to die; hence, to wither; to waste away.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To pass away; to come to naught; to waste away; to decay and disappear.
  • verb intransitive To die; to cease to live.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To cause to perish.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English perishen, from Old French perir, periss-, to perish, from Latin perīre : per-, per- + īre, to go; see ei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English perishen, from Old French periss-, stem of certain parts of perir, from Latin perīre ("to pass away, perish"), present active infinitive of pereō, from per ("through") +  ("to go"); see iter.

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Examples

  • And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer: -- and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I perish_. "

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • "In organic evolution the weak, the sick, the helpless, the unfit in anyway, perish, _and ought to perish_, because this is the most efficient way of strengthening the _blood or physical nature_ of the species, and thus of carrying forward evolution.

    Oriental Religions and Christianity A Course of Lectures Delivered on the Ely Foundation Before the Students of Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1891 Frank F. Ellinwood

  • And Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer: -- and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I perish_. "

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society

  • Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer: -- and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to law, and _if I perish, I perish_. "

    An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South Angelina Emily Grimke 1842

  • Counsel shall not perish from the wise; the administration of public affairs shall always be lodged with the privy-counsellors and ministers of state, to whom it belongs; nor shall the word perish from the prophets -- they mean those of their own choosing, who prophesied to them smooth things, and flattered them with visions of peace.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • With the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln posited the idea of a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.; and whose closing demands that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    Politics 2010

  • With the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln posited the idea of a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.; and whose closing demands that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    7 posts from August 2009 2009

  • With the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln posited the idea of a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.; and whose closing demands that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

    fed-up? 2009

  • Ever hear “that we here highly resolve ... that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

    Why I Tweet 2010

  • That Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, jailed 20,000 people without charges, forcibly shut down hundreds of newspapers that criticized him, and sent in federal troops to shut down state legislatures was irrelevant because he proclaimed “that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

    #200 for Abe the Warmonger « Antiwar.com Blog 2009

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