Perish
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈpɛɹɪʃ/
- Homophones: parish some accents
- Hyphenation: per + ish
Origin
From Middle English perishen, from Old French periss-, stem of certain parts of perir, from Latin perÄ«re ("to pass away, perish"), present active infinitive of pereÅ, from per ("through") + eÅ ("to go"); see iter.
Full definition of perish
Verb
- (intransitive) To pass away; to come to naught; to waste away; to decay and disappear.
- (intransitive) To die; to cease to live.
- 1719, Daniel Defoe, ...the ship struck upon a sand, and ... the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea.
- (transitive, obsolete) To cause to perish.