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Webster 1913 Edition

Blush

Blush

(blŭsh)
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Blushed
(blŭsht)
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Blushing
.]
[OE.
bluschen
to shine, look, turn red, AS.
blyscan
to glow; akin to
blysa
a torch,
āblȳsian
to blush, D.
blozen
, Dan.
blusse
to blaze, blush.]
1.
To become suffused with red in the cheeks, as from a sense of shame, modesty, or confusion; to become red from such cause, as the cheeks or face.
To the nuptial bower
I led her
blushing
like the morn.
Milton.
In the presence of the shameless and unblushing, the young offender is ashamed to
blush
.
Buckminster.
He would stroke
The head of modest and ingenuous worth,
That
blushed
at its own praise.
Cowper.
2.
To grow red; to have a red or rosy color.
The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set,
But stayed, and made the western welkin
blush
.
Shakespeare
3.
To have a warm and delicate color, as some roses and other flowers.
Full many a flower is born to
blush
unseen.
T. Gray.

Blush

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To suffuse with a blush; to redden; to make roseate.
[Obs.]
To
blush
and beautify the cheek again.
Shakespeare
2.
To express or make known by blushing.
I’ll
blush
you thanks.
Shakespeare

Blush

,
Noun.
1.
A suffusion of the cheeks or face with red, as from a sense of shame, confusion, or modesty.
The rosy
blush
of love.
Trumbull.
2.
A red or reddish color; a rosy tint.
Light's last
blushes
tinged the distant hills.
Lyttleton.
At first blush
, or
At the first blush
,
at the first appearance or view.
“At the first blush, we thought they had been ships come from France.”
Hakluyt.
This phrase is used now more of ideas, opinions, etc., than of material things. “All purely identical propositions, obviously, and at first blush, appear,” etc.
Locke.
–
To put to the blush
,
to cause to blush with shame; to put to shame.

Webster 1828 Edition

Blush

BLUSH

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To redden in the cheeks or face; to be suddenly suffused with a red color in the cheeks or face, from a sense of guilt, shame, confusion, modesty, diffidence or surprise; followed by at or for, before the cause of blushing; as, blush at your vices;blush for your degraded country.
In the presence of the shameless and unblushing, the young offender is ashamed to blush.
2.
To bear a blooming red color, or any soft bright color; as the blushing rose.
He bears his blushing honors thick upon him.
Shakespeare has used this word in a transitive sense, to make red, and it may be allowable in poetry.

BLUSH

,
Noun.
A red color suffusing the cheeks only, or the face generally, and excited by confusion, which may spring from shame, guilt, modesty, diffidence or surprise.
The rosy blush of love.
1.
A red or reddish color.
2.
Sudden appearance; a glance; a sense taken from the sudden suffusion of the face in blushing;; as, a proposition appears absurd at first blush.

Definition 2024

blush

blush

English

Noun

blush ‎(plural blushes)

  1. An act of blushing.
    • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act III, Scene 3,
      Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege,
      Whom thou obeyed’st thirty and six years,
      And not bewray thy treason with a blush?
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book 9, Chapter 7,
      […] when he perceived her industriously avoiding any explanation, he was contented to remain in ignorance, the rather as he was not without suspicion that there were some circumstances which must have raised her blushes, had she related the whole truth.
    • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Volume III, Chapter I,
      Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush.
    • 1925, Virginia Woolf, Mrs Dalloway,
      It was a sudden revelation, a tinge like a blush which one tried to check and then, as it spread, one yielded to its expansion […]
  2. A glow; a flush of colour.
    • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker’s History of New York, Chapter 4,
      And now the rosy blush of morn began to mantle in the east, and soon the rising sun, emerging from amidst golden and purple clouds, shed his blithesome rays on the tin weathercocks of Communipaw.
    • 1968, “Light on Light,” Time, 10 August, 1968,
      Each painting consists of a white aluminum disk, sprayed at the edges with a subtle blush of blue, pink or grey.
  3. (figuratively) Feeling or appearance of optimism.
    • 1974, “April's Fading Carnation,” Time, 9 September, 1974,Superscript text
      The independence ceremony could not keep the blush of April's revolution, when carnations had seemed to sprout from every buttonhole, from fading.
    • 2016, David McKay, “AngloGold to fire up dividend in 2017 as net debt cut a third,” miningmx.com, 15 August, 2016,
      The weakening of local currencies – in Argentina, Australia and Brazil – gave a blush to the financial numbers. (As a whole, all-in sustaining costs (AISC) improved to an average of $911/oz compared with the $924/oz recorded in the first half of 2015).
  4. (uncountable, countable) A sort of makeup, frequently a powder, used to redden the cheeks.
    • 2016, Sana Passricha, “Keep or Toss: The Shelflife of Your Beauty Treasures,” iDIVA, 22 July, 2016,
      The same rules that apply to face powder apply to powder blush, since neither contains water. Cream blush, however, should be replaced after a year. To prolong the life of any blush, clean your blush brush regularly and store the product in a dry place.
  5. A color between pink and cream.
    blush colour:    
    • 2006, Kate Betts, “What to Watch For in 2006,” Time, 9 January, 2006,
      Makeup colors like ivory and blush dominate spring collections and have even infiltrated Burberry's shoes.
  6. (chiefly US) A pale pink wine made by removing the dark grape skins at the required point during fermentation.
    • 2016, Mishkah Abrahams, “Blush or Rosé? The Cape's Best Summer Drink,” capetownetc.com, 29 September, 2016,
      If you’re looking to indulge in some good food while you sip your blush, pair the Chardonnay-Pinot Noir with fresh, summer foods such as sushi, refreshing salads, delicious seafood and fruity summertime desserts.
Derived terms
Synonyms
Translations

Verb

blush ‎(third-person singular simple present blushes, present participle blushing, simple past and past participle blushed)

  1. (intransitive) To become red in the face due to shyness, shame, excitement, or embarrassment.
    He wasn't used to this much attention, so he blushed as he saw dozens of pairs of eyes watching him.
    • Milton
      To the nuptial bower / I led her blushing like the morn.
    • 1912, Stratemeyer Syndicate, Baseball Joe on the School Nine Chapter 1
      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.
  2. (intransitive) To become red.
    • Shakespeare
      The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set, / But stayed, and made the western welkin blush.
  3. (transitive) To suffuse with a blush; to redden; to make roseate.
    • Shakespeare
      To blush and beautify the cheek again.
  4. (transitive) To change skin color in the face (to a particular shade).
    When he saw it, he blushed a beet red.
    I wasn't surprised, but it was embarrassing enough that I blushed a little pink.
  5. (transitive) To express or make known by blushing.
    Looking at me with a knowing glare, she blushed her discomfort with the situation.
    • Shakespeare
      I'll blush you thanks.
  6. (intransitive) To have a warm and delicate colour, like some roses and other flowers.
    The garden was full of blossoms that blushed in myriad shades to form a beautiful carpet of color.
    • T. Gray
      Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.
Synonyms
Translations

Related terms

Etymology 2

1486 Dame Julia Barnes. The Book of St Albans.

Noun

blush ‎(plural blushes)

  1. The collective noun for a group of boys.
    A blush of boys.
Usage notes

This is probably a fanciful expression and is not in common use.

References
  • Noun sense: 1986 Oxford Reference Dictionary: Appendix

Anagrams

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowing from English blush.

Pronunciation

  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈblɐʃ/

Noun

blush m (uncountable)

  1. blush (makeup used to redden the cheeks)

Etymology

Old English blyscan, from Proto-Germanic *blaikaz ‎(“pale, shining”).

Cognate with Old Norse blys ‎(“torch”) and Danish blus ‎(“blaze”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /blʌʃ/
  • Rhymes: -ʌʃ

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