perish the thought

perish | American Dictionary

perish
verb[ I ]
us/ˈper·ɪʃ/
to die, esp. as a result of an accident, violence, or war:
Without this assistance, thousands of refugees would perish from hunger and neglect.

Examples of perish

perish
The innocent belief that technological advancements involved a better future for humanity perished as a result.
There was little money, and soldiers and subjects perished.
On the first, in 1819-1822, 11 of 20 men died; on the fatal 1845 voyage, all 129 men perished.
In one city, seven hundred husbands perished, but not one wife!
At least seven hundred civilians perished in a few hours.
Scientific theories have often been cherished when in the eyes of their critics they ought to have perished.
Surprisingly, children reared in hygienic conditions and with medical supervision perished, while those who had returned to their underprivileged families prospered.
The dead art rescues the ephemeral and perishing art as the only one alive.
Unknown to their would-be rescuers, however, they had perished.
Most domestic building was in wood and has perished, but some of the great mural fortresses survive.
Although 38 of the films include an older actor whose character perished, death was likely to occur because of adventitious events.
On the return flight, she perishes in an air crash.
An emergent stratum of shade-tolerant broadleaved species develops and eventually replaces the pine trees, many of which perished 45-75 y after abandonment.
The conventional wisdom of the pre-1970 period had perished in the" stagflation" and social strife of the recent past.
Both plants ultimately perished, from the admission of rain water, in consequence of the rusting of the lid.
See all examples of perish
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.