onrush

UK/ˈɒnˌɹʌʃ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈɔnˌɹʌʃ/

onrush noun: a forceful rush or flow forward.

Noun

onrush (plural onrushes)

A forceful rush or flow forward.
- The love within us and the love without
  Are mixed, confounded; if we are loved or love,
  We scarce distinguish. So, with other power.
  Being acted on and acting seem the same:
  In that first onrush of life’s chariot-wheels,
  We know not if the forests move or we.1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C.S. Francis & Co., published 1857, First Book, pp. 32-33
- For a brief moment the onrush of the egwugwu [masked men representing ancestral spirits] was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men. But it was only a momentary check, like the tense silence between blasts of thunder. The second onrush was greater than the first. It swallowed up the two...1958 June 17, Chinua Achebe, chapter 22, in Things Fall Apart, London: Heinemann, →OCLC
An aggressive assault.
- He caught Grendel's right hand, and still without rising from his bed, stopped the monster's onrush.1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 29

Verb

onrush (third-person singular simple present onrushes, present participle onrushing, simple past and past participle onrushed)

To rush or flow forward forcefully.
- Werner’s run had created the space and Havertz got there before the onrushing Ederson, catching a little break off the goalkeeper before rolling it into the empty net.2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian
To assault aggressively.

onrush meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

onrush in Tamil

முன்னோக்கிய பாய்ச்சல், ஓட்டம்

onrush in Urdu

آگے کو بڑھاؤ

onrush in Kannada

ಮುನ್ನುಗ್ಗುವಿಕೆ, ನುಗ್ಗಿಬರುವಿಕೆ, ಮೇಲ್ವಾಯ್ದು ಬರುವುದು, ಆಕ್ರಮಣ, ಬಿರುಸಾದ ದಾಳಿ

Examples of onrush in a sentence

For a brief moment the onrush of the egwugwu [masked men representing ancestral spirits] was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men.1958 June 17, Chinua Achebe, chapter 22, in Things Fall Apart, London: Heinemann, →OCLC:
So persistent is the onrush of new construction in New York that the first temptation for the architecture buff is to track down the latest things, be they good or bad […]1987 July 31, Paul Goldberger, “A Baker’s Dozen of New York City’s Urban Masterpieces”, in New York Times:

Synonyms of onrush

onslaught

Forms of onrush

Noun
plural	onrushes
Verb
third-person singular present	onrushes
present participle	onrushing
past participle	onrushed
past	onrushed

Origin of onrush

From on- + rush. Compare Middle English onresen (“to rush upon; attack”), from Old English onrǣsan (“to rush, rush on”); Old English onrǣs (“an onrush, assault, attack”).

Questions about onrush

What does onrush mean?: Onrush means a forceful rush or flow forward.
What is onrush in Tamil?: Onrush in Tamil is முன்னோக்கிய பாய்ச்சல், ஓட்டம். See Onrush meaning in Tamil.
How do you use onrush in a sentence?: For a brief moment the onrush of the egwugwu [masked men representing ancestral spirits] was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men.
What part of speech is onrush?: Onrush can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce onrush?: Onrush is pronounced /ˈɒnˌɹʌʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of onrush?: The plural of onrush is onrushes.

Words near onrush in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: onrush (page history and authors); onrush (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); onrush (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); onrush (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-onrush.wav.

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