suf·fuse

(sə-fyo͞oz′)

tr.v. suf·fused, suf·fus·ing, suf·fus·es

1. To spread through or over, as with liquid or light: "The sky above the roof is suffused with deep colors" (Eugene O'Neill).

2. To fill thoroughly or permeate, as with a quality or emotion: music that is suffused with sadness. See Synonyms at imbue.

[Latin suffundere, suffūs- : sub-, sub- + fundere, to pour; see gheu- in Indo-European roots.]

suf·fu′sion n.

suf·fu′sive (-fyo͞o′sĭv, -zĭv) adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

suffusive - spreading through; "suffusive purple light"

distributive - serving to distribute or allot or disperse

References in classic literature

As he threw down his book, stretched his legs towards the embers in the grate, and clasped his hands at the back of his head, in that agreeable afterglow of excitement when thought lapses from examination of a specific object into a suffusive sense of its connections with all the rest of our existence--seems, as it were, to throw itself on its back after vigorous swimming and float with the repose of unexhausted strength--Lydgate felt a triumphant delight in his studies, and something like pity for those less lucky men who were not of his profession.

View in context

After examining a number of first-hand accounts of torture victims, I define torture as the intentional infliction of a suffusive panic.

CRIMINAL LAW TORTURE AND RESPECT

The repetition of words denoting his suffusive heat underscores the ways in which the intimacy he has to offer seem utterly to envelop and enrapture her separate self.

Inheritance from the earth and generational passages in D.H. Lawrence's The Rainbow

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