gush

English

Etymology

From Middle English guschen, gusshen, gosshien, perhaps from Middle Dutch guysen (“to flow out with a gurgling sound, gush”) or Old Norse gusa (“to gush”), ultimately imitative.

Compare Old Norse geysa (“to gush”), German gießen (“to pour”), Old English ġēotan ("to pour"; > English yote). Related to gust.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌʃ

Noun

gush (plural gushes)

1. A sudden rapid outflow.
   • 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger

     There was a cartoon woman in an apron on the front. She stood with one hand on her hip while she used the other hand to pour a gush of drain-cleaner into something that was either an industrial sink or Orson Welles's bidet.

Translations

sudden rapid outflow

• Bulgarian: бликване (bg) n (blikvane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 噴出 (zh), 喷出 (zh) (pēnchū)

• Dutch: gutsen (nl) n
• Finnish: purskahdus (fi), ryöpsähdys (fi)
• French: jaillissement (fr)
• Galician: gurgullón m, gorgozada f

• German: Schwall (de) m, Flut (de) f
• Irish: scaird f
• Japanese: 噴出 (ja) (ふんしゅつ, funshutsu)
• Portuguese: esguicho (pt) m
• Russian: внеза́пный пото́к m (vnezápnyj potók), вы́брос (ru) m (výbros), струя́ (ru) f (strujá)
• Westrobothnian: sput m

Verb

gush (third-person singular simple present gushes, present participle gushing, simple past and past participle gushed)

1. (intransitive, also figuratively) To flow forth suddenly, in great volume.

   Water gushed out of the broken pipe.

   After he was stabbed, blood came gushing out his throat.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, book I, canto VIII, stanza 10:

     Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stocke / Forth gushed, like fresh water streame from riuen rocke.

   • 1889, Mathilde Blind, “[Love in Exile. Song X.] ‘On Life’s Long Round’.”, in The Ascent of Man, London: Chatto & Windus, […], OCLC 1017374996, stanza 1, page 177:

     On life's long round by chance I found / A dell impearled with dew, / Where hyacinths, gushing from the ground, / Lent to the earth heaven's native hue / Of holy blue.

2. (transitive, also figuratively) To send (something) flowing forth suddenly in great volume.
   • 1993, Brian Lumley, Blood Brothers, Macmillan (→ISBN), page 119:

     The other was no longer capable of controlling his anger; his parasite creature amplified his passion by ten; his jaws cracked open and his great mouth gushed blood from torn gums as teeth grew out of them like bone sickles.

   • 2001, Larry L. Miller, Tennessee Place-names, Indiana University Press (→ISBN), page 196:

     A beautiful spring gushed water from the ground in this mountainous sector of Polk County, inspiring the name of the place.

3. (intransitive, especially of a woman) To ejaculate during orgasm.
   • 2008, Anya Bast, The Chosen Sin, Penguin (→ISBN), page 154:

     Her orgasm exploded over her, making her writhe and cry out his name. She gushed over his hand, her cunt gripping and releasing his invading fingers.

   • 2009, Emma Holly, Kissing Midnight, Penguin (→ISBN):

     Somehow, this made his ejaculations all the more exciting, sending hot tingles streaking through her as he gushed.

   • 2014, Stewart N. Johnson, Parthian Stranger 2 Conspiracy, Trafford Publishing (→ISBN):

     […] she pulled off an amazing orgasm, one after another, she gushed with force, […]

   • 2017, Cara McKinnon, Memories of Magic, Stars and Stone Books (→ISBN):

     Odd. She'd never managed to do that to herself before—to climax so hard she gushed. Sometimes her sex partners didn't satisfy her as well as she could on her own, but her most intense orgasms had always been with others.

4. (intransitive, transitive, figuratively) To make an excessive display of enthusiasm, praise, or sentiment.

   All the complaints she'd bottled up came gushing out during their marriage counselling session.

   • 1911, Thompson Buchanan, Making People Happy, page 14:

     Miss Johnson gushed approval with her usual air of coquettish superiority.

   • 2010, Pat Williams, Jim Denney, How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life, Simon and Schuster (→ISBN):

     Randy Thornton, a producer with Walt Disney Records, put it this way: “Walt was not a man who gushed praise. His biggest words of approval were, 'That'll work.'

   • 2017, Judson G. Everitt, Lesson Plans: The Institutional Demands of Becoming a Teacher, Rutgers University Press (→ISBN):

     Nellie routinely gushed praise to students for good performance whereas Frank was much more sparing in praising students.

Translations

to flow forth suddenly

• Bulgarian: бликвам (bg) (blikvam), руквам (bg) (rukvam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 噴 (zh), 喷 (zh) (pēn), 噴薄 (zh), 喷薄 (zh) (pēnbó), 噴出 (zh), 喷出 (zh) (pēnchū)

• Esperanto: spruĉi
• Finnish: purskahtaa (fi), pursuta (fi), hulahtaa, ryöpsähtää (fi)
• French: jaillir (fr)
• German: sich ergießen, strömen (de), herausquellen
• Irish: scaird
• Japanese: 噴出する (ja) (ふんしゅつする, funshutsu suru), 湧き出る (わきでる, wakideru)
• Latin: scateō
• Maori: kuhī, hīrere, kapukapu, totō

• Middle English: spryngen
• Portuguese: esguichar (pt)
• Russian: хлы́нуть (ru) pf (xlýnutʹ), струи́ться (ru) impf (struítʹsja), фонтани́ровать (ru) impf (fontanírovatʹ), бить струёй impf (bitʹ strujój)
• Spanish: manar (es), salir a borbotones, brotar (es)
• Swedish: forsa (sv)
• Turkish: fışkırmak (tr)
• Walloon: spiter (wa), stritchî (wa), spritchî (wa)
• Westrobothnian: spūt

to make an excessive display of enthusiasm

• Finnish: puuskahtaa
• German: schwärmen (de)

• Maori: pātere
• Spanish: hacer efusión

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Anagrams

• Shug, hugs, shug

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Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *gunša, close to Lithuanian gùžas (“knag”), Old Norse kjuka (“ankle”) and Old Church Slavonic gustъ (gustŭ, “thick, dense”).

Noun

gush f (definite singular gusha)

1. neck, Adam's apple

Related terms

• gungë
• kungull