noun
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?
[…] 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.
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.
Each painting consists of a white aluminum disk, sprayed at the edges with a subtle blush of blue, pink or grey.
A feeling or appearance of optimism.
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 independence ceremony could not keep the blush of April's revolution, when carnations had seemed to sprout from every buttonhole, from fading.
2016, David McKay, “AngloGold to fire up dividend in 2017 as net debt cut a third,” miningmx.com, 15 August, 2016, 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).
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.
A color between pink and cream.
Makeup colors like ivory and blush dominate spring collections and have even infiltrated Burberry's shoes.
verb
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.
To be shy, ashamed, or embarrassed (to do something).
While Cato lives, Caesar will blush to see Mankind enslaved, and be ashamed of Empire.
He never blushed to rob a slave mother of her children, no matter how young or small.
To become red or pink.
The sun of heaven, methought, was loth to set, But stayed, and made the western welkin blush,
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.
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.
noun
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.