American Dictionary of the English Language

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Blush


BLUSH, verb intransitive

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