blush
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /blʌʃ/
rhymes: -ʌʃ
Forms: form: blushes
form: blushing
form: blushed
form: blushed
Etymology: From Middle English blusshen, bluschen, blusschen, blisshen, from Old English blysċan (“to be red; shine”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *blaskijaną, from *blasǭ (“burning candle; torch”) or alternatively from Proto-Germanic *bluskijaną, from *blusjǭ (“torch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.
Cognate with Middle Low German blöschen (“to blush”). Compare also Old English blysian (“to burn; blaze”), Dutch blozen (“to blush”), Danish blusse (“to blush”), Old Norse blys (“torch”), Danish blus (“blaze”).
Senses: examples: text: The love scene made him blush to the roots of his hair / to the tips of his ears.
text: He wasn't used to this much attention, so he blushed as he saw dozens of pairs of eyes watching him.
text: […] they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 6:15:
text: text-To the Nuptial Bowre
I led her blushing like the Morn:
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1147-1148:
text: I wonder whether they [women] ever blush at those things by themselves, at which they have so charming a knack of blushing in company.—If not; and if blushing be a sign of grace or modesty, have not the sex as great a command over their blushes, as they are said to have over their tears?
ref: 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XLI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 233:
text: Mrs. Montgomery brushed away her tears, and blushed at having shed them.
ref: 1880, Henry James, chapter 14, in Washington Square, Harper & Brothers, →OCLC:
text: But Tommy was bashful, and the attention he had thus drawn upon himself made him blush. He was a timid lad and he shrank away now, evidently fearing Shell.
ref: 1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, chapter 1, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine:
glosses: To become red or pink in the face (and sometimes experience an associated feeling of warmth), especially due to shyness, love, shame, excitement, or embarrassment.
examples: text: While Cato lives, Caesar will blush to see
Mankind enslaved, and be ashamed of Empire.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene iv, page 53:
text: He never blushed to rob a slave mother of her children, no matter how young or small.
ref: 1849, Henry Bibb, chapter 6, in Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, New York: for the author, page 50:
text: […] in this enlightened age, we have much to blush for in the acts of our ancestors.
ref: 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 17, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
glosses: To be shy, ashamed, or embarrassed (to do something).
examples: text: The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set,
But stayed, and made the western welkin blush,
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
glosses: To become red or pink.
examples: text: [the ghost] with the heart there cools and ne’er returneth
To blush and beautify the cheek again.
ref: 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
glosses: To suffuse with a blush; to redden; to pinken; to make rosy.
examples: text: When he saw it, he blushed a beet red.
text: I wasn't surprised, but it was embarrassing enough that I blushed a little pink.
text: A few lost leaves blushed crimson with their shame,
And drowned themselves despairing in the brook,
ref: 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Poet’s Tale: The Birds or Killingworth”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston: Ticknor & Fields, page 202:
text: […] she […] blushed a warm and genuine-looking pink.
ref: 1969, Margaret Atwood, chapter 8, in The Edible Woman, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, published 2010:
glosses: To change skin color in the face (to a particular shade).
examples: text: Looking at me with a knowing glare, she blushed her discomfort with the situation.
text: I’ll blush you thanks.
ref: c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act WINTER'S TALE, scene iv], page 4:
text: The windows smiled, the door coaxed and beckoned, the creeper blushed confederacy.
ref: 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXV, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume II, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the fourth (The Consequence), page 47:
text: “I can see you yawning and stretching, Felix—not very polite.” Felix sprang to attention, metaphorically speaking, and blushed his apologies.
ref: 1978, Lawrence Durrell, chapter 5, in Livia, London: Faber & Faber, published 1981, page 134:
glosses: To express or make known by blushing.
examples: text: The garden was full of blossoms that blushed in myriad shades to form a beautiful carpet of color.
text: Full many a Flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its Sweetness on the desart Air.
ref: 1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, London: R. Dodsley, page 8:
text: […] lanes which last night blushed full of flowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden snow;
ref: 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 302:
text: Natalie^’s pink bonnet blushed in the early sunshine […]
ref: 1899, Alice Dunbar Nelson, “The Fisherman of Pass Christian”, in The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories:
glosses: To have a warm and delicate colour, like some roses and other flowers.
glosses: To glance with the eye, cast a glance.
examples: text: Blushing is caused by doping under high relative humidity conditions.
ref: 1966, Aviation Structural Mechanic S 3 & 2, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, page 219:
text: Why is retarder used in dope when the dope is being sprayed in humid conditions? The retarder slows the drying of the dope and keeps it from blushing.
ref: 1999, Dale Crane, Fast-Track Test Guides for Aviation Maintenance: Airframe, page 147:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Of dope or varnish: to develop an undesirable white precipitate on the surface, due to being applied in humid conditions.
Synonyms: flush
pinken
redden
Derived terms: ablush
antiblush
antiblushing
blusher
blushet
blushing bride
blushing bunny
blushingly
blushworthy
make the angels blush
outblush
unblush
unblushing
Related terms: english: fear of blushing
translation: fear of blushing
word: erythrophobia