rush

pronunciation

How to pronounce rush in British English: UK [rʌʃ] word uk audio image

How to pronounce rush in American English: US [rʌʃ] word us audio image

Noun:

the act of moving hurriedly and in a careless manner
a sudden forceful flow
grasslike plants growing in wet places and having cylindrical often hollow stems
the swift release of a store of affective force
a sudden burst of activity
(American football) an attempt to advance the ball by running into the line
Verb:

step on it
attack suddenly
urge to an unnatural speed
act or move at high speed
run with the ball, in football
cause to move fast or to rush or race
cause to occur rapidly
Adjective:

not accepting reservations
done under pressure

Word Origin

rush: rush: English has two words rush. The plantname [OE] goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *rusk-, which also produced German and Dutch rusch, and may be related to Latin restis ‘rush’. Rush ‘hurry’ [14] goes back ultimately to Old French ruser ‘drive back, detour’, source of English ruse. It reached English via Anglo- Norman russher, where until the 17th century it was used in its original sense ‘drive back, repulse’. The sense ‘hurry’ developed in Anglo- Norman, presumably from some association of the sound of the word with ‘hurrying’.=> ruse

rush (n.2): "a hasty driving forward," late 14c., from rush (v.). Sense of "mass migration of people" (especially to a gold field) is from 1848, American English. Football/rugby sense from 1857. Meaning "surge of pleasure" is from 1960s. Rush hour first recorded 1888. Rush order from 1896.

rush (v.): mid-14c. (implied in rushing), "to drive back or down," from Anglo-French russher, from Old French ruser "to dodge, repel" (see ruse). Meaning "to do something quickly" is from 1650s; transitive sense of "to hurry up (someone or something)" is from 1850. U.S. Football sense originally was in rugby (1857). Fraternity/sorority sense is from 1896 (originally it was what the fraternity did to the student); from 1899 as a noun in this sense. Earlier it was a name on U.S. campuses for various tests of strength or athletic skill between freshmen and sophomores as classes (1860).

rush (n.1): "plant growing in marshy ground," Old English resc, earlier risc, from Proto-Germanic *rusk- (cognates: Middle Low German rusch, Middle High German rusch, German Rausch, West Frisian risk, Dutch rusch), from PIE *rezg- "to plait, weave, wind" (cognates: Latin restis "cord, rope"). Old French rusche probably is from a Germanic source. Used for making torches and finger rings, also strewn on floors when visitors arrived; it was attested a type of "something of no value" from c. 1300. See OED for spelling variations.

vt.