All 15 Uses
perish
in
Robinson Crusoe
(Auto-generated)
- I did not go out of sight of the boat, as dreading the savages coming down the river in their canoes; but the boy seeing a low descent or vale about a mile in the country, he wandered to it: and then running back to me with great precipitation, I thought he was pursued by some savage or wild beast; upon which I approached, resolving to perish or protect him from danger.†
perish = die, be destroyed, or cease to exist
- And in a word, I put my whole stress upon this, "Either that I must meet with some ship or certainly perish."†
- which he had no sooner cried out, but our ship struck upon a sand bank, and in a moment the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately.†
perished = died, was destroyed, or ceased to exist
- Yet while these disponding cogitations would seem to make me accuse Providence, other good thoughts would interpose and reprove me after this manner: Well, supposing you are desolate, it is not better to be so than totally perish?†
perish = die, be destroyed, or cease to exist
- GOOD But yet I am preserved, while my companions are perished in the raging ocean.†
*perished = died, was destroyed, or ceased to exist
- And now I considered what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted, compared my present condition with what I at first expected it should be; how I should have done, if I had got nothing out of the ship, that I must have perished before I had caught fish or turtles; or lived, had I found them, like a mere savage, by eating them raw, and pulling them in pieces with my claws, like a beast.†
- Now I began to look upon myself as quite lost, since as, the current ran on both sides of the island, I was very certain they must join again, and then I had no hope but of perishing for want in the sea, after what provision I had was spent, or before, if a storm should happen to arise.†
perishing = dying or being destroyed; or extremely cold
- what a bounteous table was here spread in a wilderness for me, where I expected nothing thing at first but to perish for hunger.†
perish = die, be destroyed, or cease to exist
- But as all these conjectures were very uncertain, I could do no more than commiserate there distress, and thank God for delivering me, in particular, when so many perished in the raging ocean.†
perished = died, was destroyed, or ceased to exist
- When I asked him about the particulars of his voyage, he answered that their ship was bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havannah; that when the ship was lost, only five men perished in the ocean; the rest having saved themselves in the boat, were now landed on the main continent.†
- The story, said he, is too long to relate, since our butchers are so near: but, Sir, I was master of that ship, my men have mutinied, and it is a favour they have put my mate, this passenger, and me, on shore without murdering us, though we expect nothing but perishing here.†
perishing = dying or being destroyed; or extremely cold
- & then they got into their boats, as creatures in the last extremity, with what provision they had, together with oars, sails, and a compass, intending to go back to Newfoundland, the wind blowing at S.E. and by E. though there were several chances against them as storms to overset and founder them, rains and colds to benumb and perish their limbs, and contrary winds to keep them back and starve them;†
perish = die, be destroyed, or cease to exist
- so we took them up to save them, not to plunder them, or leave them naked upon the land, to perish for want of subsistance, and therefore would not accept their money: but as to landing them, that was a great difficulty;†
- If I had not gone on board their ship, the knowledge of their misery had been concealed from me, and they would have inevitably perished; though, indeed, their second mate who was Captain, by reason the true Captain was not on board when the hurricane happened, had before informed me that there was such persons on board, whom he supposed to be dead, being afraid to inquire after them, because he had nothing to give them for relief.†
perished = died, was destroyed, or ceased to exist
- for, Sir, the essence or sacrament of matrimony (so he called it) not only consists in mutual consent, but in the legal obligation, which compels them to own and acknowledge one another, to abstain from other persons, the men to provide for their wives and children, and the woman to the same and like conditions, nutatis mutandis, on their side: whereas, Sir, these men, upon their own pleasure, on any occasion, may forsake those women and marry others, and by disowning their children, suffer them utterly to perish.†
perish = die, be destroyed, or cease to exist
Definitions:
-
(1)
(perish) to die -- especially in an unnatural way
or:
to be destroyed or cease to existYou 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. - (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)