Both Uses of
perish
in
Far from the Madding Crowd
- 'tis the gospel of the body, without which we perish, so to speak it.†
Chpt 22-24 *
- I certainly, at first, had a strange unaccountable feeling that he could not have perished, but I have been able to explain that in several ways since.†
Chpt 49-51
Definition:
-
(perish) to die -- especially in an unnatural way
or:
to be destroyed or cease to existeditor's notes: You may encounter an informal expression, "Perish the thought." It means that the speaker hopes the thought will cease to exist and the thing it represents will never happen.