flush

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“
And a flush was his reward But when this Copeland spoke he was as one transfigured.

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Definitions (101)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (31)

  1. intransitive verb To turn red, as from fever, embarrassment, or strong emotion; blush.
  2. intransitive verb To glow, especially with a reddish color: The sky flushed pink at dawn.
  3. intransitive verb To flow suddenly and abundantly, as from containment; flood.
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

blush ·  glow ·  flicker ·  thrill ·  tinge ·  tremor ·  surge ·  flash ·  throb ·  red ·  spark ·  twinge

Used in the same contextWord Family

flush:   flushing ·  flushed ·  flushes
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (17)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Probably from flush3, to dart out.
  2. French flux, flus, from Old French flux, from Latin flūxus, flux; see flux.
  3. Middle English flusshen.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (14)

  1. Prob. of Scandinavian origin and ult. connected with flash; cf. Swedish dial flossa, burn furiously, blaze, Norwegian flosa, passion, vehemence, eagerness: see further under flash and flare. The meaning touches those of flush and flush, q. v., and in the phrase ‘flush for anger’ that of flush (see first extract there). The meaning has probably been affected by the different word blush.
  2. from flush, v.
  3. from flush, v. In the second sense scarcely used except in the poetical examples quoted (first by Shakspere, in a fig. sense) and imitations of them. The sense is gathered from the context.
  4. Another form of flosh = flash, in a similar sense: see flosh, flash. The form and sense may have been affected by flux, French flux, a flowing, running (see flux and flush), and by Old Dutch fluysen, Danish dial. fluse, flow with violence (? perhaps due to Middle High German vliezen, German fliessen = English fleet, flow: see fleet). But the intransitive use of flush, equivalent to ‘flow,’ appears to be confined to such expressions as “the blood flushes into the face,” where the verb is rather flush, the idea of color and not of motion prevailing.
  5. In the first sense another form of flosh = flash, as flush is another form of flosh = flash: see flosh and flash. In the other senses prob. dependent on flush, v.
  6. Nearly always in the past participle, in such expressions as “flushed with success,” “flushed with victory,” where the word is commonly associated with flush, as if it meant ‘thrown into a glow’; hence ‘heated, excited’; it is, however, a corruption, by a natural confusion with flush, of flesh, transitive verb, encourage by giving flesh to, excite, as dogs, by feeding with flesh; cf. “flushed, fleshed, encouraged, put in heart, elated with good success” (Bailey). See flesh, transitive verb
  7. from Middle English flusshen (also flussen, flissen, in preterit fluste, fliste), fly out suddenly; apparently the same as flyschen (rare) (fly out against?), thrust, strike against (of a spear); cf. English dial. flusk, fly out suddenly, quarrel: see flusk, flusker, fluster. Flush, being used in reference to birds, seems to have a natural connection with flush, able to fly; but flush is a modern and corrupt form; the Middle English forms of the two words are far apart.
  8. English dial., perhaps an extension of the notion ‘a good many,’ implied, by an easy exaggeration, in ‘a flush’ of cards: see flush, n. The same notion is derivable, perhaps more easily, from ‘a flush’ or flock of birds (see flush, n.), or from flush, n., bloom, flush, a., in vigorous growth.
  9. Origin not clear; perhaps, as here assumed, from the noun flush, a great number: see flush, n. It is not easy to connect this word with flush.
  10. Hardly other than a particular use of flush, full, though the precise connection of thought is not clear. The panel of a door, for example, usually below the plane of the frame, seems to have been regarded as ‘full’ or ‘flush’ when fixed even with that plane, thus filling up the hollow space.
  11. from flush, a.
  12. English dial., also flish (and flitch, officious, lively), other forms of flidge, unassibilated flig, all dial. forms of English fledge, from Middle English flegge, fligge, flygge, able to fly: see fledge, adjective, and fly, a., which are doublets.
  13. English dial., from flush, a. Same as fledge, v. i.
  14. Altered in form, by confusion with flush in other senses, from Old French flux, a flowing, running, rushing out, a flux, also a flush at cards, = Spanish flux = Italian flusso, a flux, a flush at cards (i. e., a ‘run’ of cards); hence also (from Old French) Old Flemish fluys, three cards of the same suit, fluys-spel, a game of cards, fluysen, play cards; from Latin fluxus, a flow: see flux.
 

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/fləʃ/
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