do a perish meaning (slang): definition, quotations

do a perish

verb

Australia, Slang To suffer privation or hardship of any kind.

"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."1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 5:

Australia, Slang To die, especially to die of thirst; to perish.