onrush
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
onrush (plural onrushes)
- A forceful rush or flow forward.
- 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh[1], New York: C.S. Francis & Co., published 1857, First Book, pp. 32-33:
- 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.
- 1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 22, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959:
- 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 men.
- 1987 July 31, Paul Goldberger, “A Baker’s Dozen of New York City’s Urban Masterpieces”, in New York Times:
- 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 […]
- An aggressive assault.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]
forceful rush
aggressive assault
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Verb[edit]
onrush (third-person singular simple present onrushes, present participle onrushing, simple past and past participle onrushed)
- To rush or flow forward forcefully.
- 2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian[2]:
- 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.
- To assault aggressively.
Translations[edit]
rush forcefully
assault aggressively
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