blush

blush vb Blush, flush are comparable as verbs primarily when meaning to turn or grow red in the face and as nouns when meaning a turning or growing red in the face.

Blush implies a sudden heightening of color usually as the result of shame or embarrassment

{

caused Mrs. Tolliver to blush as if it were herself who had sinned— Bromfield

}

{

she blushed to a crisp when she found her mistake— White

}

{

Lucy blushed, as one who has something very secret to tell, very sweet, very strange, but cannot quite bring herself to speak it— Meredithy

}

Blush is often extended to matters (as the dawn, the sunset, or a fresh growth of pink in the garden) that suggest a delicate glow or warmth of color

{

a faint blush of color tinged the eastern sky

}

{

in the hedges there were bushes of faintly blushing dog rose in full blossom— David Garnett

}

{

full many a flower is born to blush unseen— Gray

}

Flush basically suggests a flooding (as by a rush of water) or a sudden brilliant flashing or glowing. In reference to the face both of these ideas are involved, for flush may imply a reddening of the face that brightens or floods the countenance sometimes transiently like a flame or it may imply the more or less persistent redness of the face that is associated with robust health, anger, elation, fever, or hard drinking. Flush, therefore, connotes modesty or shame much less often than does blush

{

the hard dull flush of the steady heavy drinker— Wolfe

}

{

no one could look more beautiful . . . when she was flushed from the fire— D. H. Lawrence

}

{

a flush of anger came to his cheeks— Anderson

}

{

flushed with a new humane glow, he would go singing on his way— Lucas

}

In extended usage flush refers to lights or colors that flash and dart and glow

{

straying beams ... in copper-colored patches flush the sky— Clare

}

Analogous words: color, tint, tinge (see corresponding nouns at COLOR)

blush n flush (see under BLUSH vb)

Analogous words: *color, tint, tinge, hue