Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Blush?

\Blush\ (bl[u^]sh) v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Blushed} (bl[u^]sht); p. pr. & vb. n. {Blushing}.] [OE. bluschen to shine, look, turn red, AS. blyscan to glow; akin to blysa a torch, [=a]bl[=y]sian 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. --Shak. 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\, v. t. 1. To suffuse with a blush; to redden; to make roseate. [Obs.] To blush and beautify the cheek again. --Shak. 2. To express or make known by blushing. I'll blush you thanks. --Shak.
\Blush\, n. 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. Note: 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.