do a perish

English

Verb

do a perish (third-person singular simple present does a perish, present participle doing a perish, simple past did a perish, past participle done a perish)

1. (Australia, slang) To suffer privation or hardship of any kind.
   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 5:

     "I've had ten years of it, scratching enough out of it to dress and feed myself when the going's good and sharing a room with a girl friend or pigging it in some cheap boarding-house, and doing a perish when I've been out of a job. I've got to the point where I can't stick it any longer."

2. (Australia, slang) To die, especially to die of thirst; to perish.