death wish

noun

: the conscious or unconscious desire for the death of oneself or of another

Examples of death wish in a Sentence

Have you seen the way she drives? She must have a death wish.

Recent Examples on the Web

Should the guy who spends his spare time dodging bullets really be lecturing him on death wishes? —Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 17 Apr. 2026

The idea that anyone not afflicted by a death wish might initiate a high-speed accident with a thirty-eight-ton tractor-trailer seemed ludicrous. —Patrick Radden Keefe, New Yorker, 13 Apr. 2026

An outsider romance peppered with gallows humor and bubbling over with giddy optimism, Harold and Maude is a life-affirming, weirdly wonderful film about a rich kid with a death wish and his love affair with an exuberant 79-year-old woman. —Debby Wolfinsohn, Entertainment Weekly, 13 Apr. 2026

Michaela Dorfmeister, the two-time Olympic champion, went so far as to ask if Vonn had a death wish? —Scott M. Reid, Oc Register, 8 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1856, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for death wish

• bluefish
• catfish
• codfish
• crawfish
• dogfish
• finfish
• flatfish
• goldfish
• groundfish
• kingfish
• offish
• redfish

Medical Definition

death wish

noun

: the conscious or unconscious desire for the death of another or of oneself

called also destrudo