Word.ws English Dictionary

blush

/ˈblʌʃ/

blush noun: an act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc. Also the ellipsis of blush wine.

Noun (1)

blush (countable and uncountable, plural blushes)

  1. An act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc.
    • Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege,
      Whom thou obeyed’st thirty and six years,
      And not bewray thy treason with a blush?c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • […] 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.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII
  2. A glow; a flush of colour, especially pink or red.
    • 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.1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), New...
    • Each painting consists of a white aluminum disk, sprayed at the edges with a subtle blush of blue, pink or grey.1968 August 10, “Light on Light”, in Time
    Synonyms:
    color
  3. (figuratively) A feeling or appearance of optimism.
    • The independence ceremony could not keep the blush of April's revolution, when carnations had seemed to sprout from every buttonhole, from fading.1974, “April's Fading Carnation,” Time, 9 September, 1974,https://web.archive.org/web/20130813201436/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904100,00.html
    • 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).2016, David McKay, “AngloGold to fire up dividend in 2017 as net debt cut a third,” miningmx.com, 15 August, 2016
  4. A cosmetic, frequently a powder, used to redden the cheeks and lips.
    • 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.2016, Sana Passricha, “Keep or Toss: The Shelflife of Your Beauty Treasures,” iDIVA, 22 July, 2016,_(http://www.idiva.com/news-style-beauty/keep-or-toss-the-shelf-life-of-your-beauty-treasures/1607226...
    Synonyms:
    blusher, rouge
  5. A color between pink and cream.
    • Makeup colors like ivory and blush dominate spring collections and have even infiltrated Burberry's shoes.2006 January 9, Kate Betts, “What to Watch For in 2006”, in Time

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive) To become red or pink in the face (and sometimes experience an associated feeling of warmth), especially due to shyness, love, shame, excitement, or embarrassment.
    • The love scene made him blush to the roots of his hair / to the tips of his ears.
    • He wasn't used to this much attention, so he blushed as he saw dozens of pairs of eyes watching him.
    Synonyms:
    color, flush, crimson
  2. (figuratively, intransitive) To be shy, ashamed, or embarrassed (to do something).
    • While Cato lives, Caesar will blush to see
      Mankind enslaved, and be ashamed of Empire.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 53
    • He never blushed to rob a slave mother of her children, no matter how young or small.1849, Henry Bibb, chapter 6, in Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, New York: for the author, page 50
  3. (intransitive) To become red or pink.
    • The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set,
      But stayed, and made the western welkin blush,c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (transitive) To suffuse with a blush; to redden; to pinken; to make rosy.
    • [the ghost] with the heart there cools and ne’er returneth
      To blush and beautify the cheek again.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  5. (copulative) 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.
  6. (transitive) To express or make known by blushing.
    • Looking at me with a knowing glare, she blushed her discomfort with the situation.
    • I’ll blush you thanks.c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  7. (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.
    • Full many a Flower is born to blush unseen,
      And waste its Sweetness on the desart Air.1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, London: R. Dodsley, page 8
  8. (intransitive, obsolete) To glance with the eye, cast a glance.
  9. (intransitive) Of dope or varnish: to develop an undesirable white precipitate on the surface, due to being applied in humid conditions.
    • Blushing is caused by doping under high relative humidity conditions.1966, Aviation Structural Mechanic S 3 & 2, United States. Bureau of Naval Personnel, page 219
    • Why is retarder used in dope when the dope is being sprayed in humid conditions? The retarder slows the drying of the dope and keeps it from blushing.1999, Dale Crane, Fast-Track Test Guides for Aviation Maintenance: Airframe, page 147

Noun (2)

blush (plural blushes)

  1. The collective noun for a group of boys.
    • a blush of boys
    • I took the Red Cross senior lifesaving test, the one girl in a blush of boys taking the course.1962, Bette Davis, chapter 3, in The Lonely Life: An Autobiography,, New York: Putnam, page 46

Also used as

blush is also the ellipsis of blush wine.

blush meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Kannada

blush in Hindi

ब्लश, ब्लश करें

blush in Marathi

ब्लश, ब्लश करा

blush in Bengali

ব্লশ

blush in Kannada

ಬ್ಲಷ್, ಬ್ಲಶ್
More languagesFewer languages
blush in Odia
ବ୍ଲଶ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ବ୍ଲଶ୍
blush in Sanskrit
जिह्रेति jihreti
blush in Nepali
ब्लश
blush in Tagalog
himula, paghihimula, kolorete, himulahin
blush in Arabic
اِحْمِرَار iḥmirār, رُوج rūj, اِحْمَرَّ iḥmarra
blush in Malay
cepua
blush in Indonesian
merah merona, tersipu, perona pipi
blush in Persian
سرخ شدن sorx šodan, روژ گونه rož-e gune, سرخاب sorxâb
blush in Vietnamese
đỏ mặt

Examples of blush in a sentence

  • Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush.1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […]...
  • 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 […]1925 May 14, Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, London: Leonard and Virginia Woolf at The Hogarth Press, →OCLC:
  • […] they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 6:15:
  • Montgomery brushed away her tears, and blushed at having shed them.1880, Henry James, chapter 14, in Washington Square, Harper & Brothers, →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with blush

Synonyms of blush

All synonyms of blush

Forms of blush

Noun
pluralblushes
Verb
third-person singular presentblushes
present participleblushing
past participleblushed
pastblushed

Past tense of blush: blushed

Plural of blush: blushes

Origin of blush

From Middle English blusshen, bluschen, blusschen, blisshen, from Old English blysċan (“to be red; shine”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *blaskijaną, from *blasǭ (“burning candle; torch”) or alternatively from Proto-Germanic *bluskijaną, from *blusjǭ (“torch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-. Cognate with Middle Low German blöschen (“to blush”). Compare also Old English blysian (“to burn; blaze”), Dutch blozen (“to blush”), Danish blusse (“to blush”), Old Norse blys (“torch”), Danish blus (“blaze”).

Unknown; attested in the late 15th century.

Words formed from blush

Phrases with blush

Words that rhyme with blush

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about blush

What does blush mean?
Blush means an act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc.
What is blush in Hindi?
Blush in Hindi is ब्लश, ब्लश करें. See Blush meaning in Hindi.
How do you use blush in a sentence?
Their eyes instantly met, and the cheeks of each were overspread with the deepest blush.
What part of speech is blush?
Blush can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce blush?
Blush is pronounced /ˈblʌʃ/.
What is the plural of blush?
The plural of blush is blushes.

Words near blush in the dictionary

  1. Blurton
  2. Blurtons
  3. blurts
  4. blurts out
  5. blus
  6. blush
  7. blush is off the peach
  8. blush is off the rose
  9. blush macaranga
  10. blush macarangas
  11. blush wine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blush (page history and authors); blush (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blush (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blush (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blush (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blush (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); blush (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-blush.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blush.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blush. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.