Category:Blush

Blush v. i. [imp. & p. p. Blushed; p. pr. & vb. n. Blushing.] Etym: [OE. bluschen to shine, look, turn red, AS. blyscan to glow; akin to blysa a torch, abl 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 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 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.