Blushes

blush  (blsh)

intr.v. blushed, blush·ing, blush·es

1. To become red in the face, especially from modesty, embarrassment, or shame; flush.

2. To become red or rosy.

3. To feel embarrassed or ashamed: blushed at his own audacity.

n.

1. A reddening of the face, especially from modesty, embarrassment, or shame.

2. A red or rosy color: the blush of dawn.

3. A glance, look, or view: thought the painting genuine at first blush.

4. Blusher.

---

[Middle English blushen, from Old English blyscan; see bhel-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

---

blushful adj.

blushing·ly adv.

---

Blushes 

See Also: FACIAL COLOR, RED, SHAME, SHYNESS

1. Blood gushed crimson to her cheek … as though red wine had been poured into a crystal glass —Stefan Zweig
2. The blood showed clearly [on his face] like wine stains a pearly glass —Elinor Wylie
3. Blushed like a beetroot —Anatoly Rybakof
4. Blushed like a brick —Samuel Hopkins Adams
5. Blushed like a rose —Isak Dinesen
6. Blushed, like a wave of illness —Nadine Gordimer
7. Blushes rising like the tide —Lael Tucker Wertenbaker
8. Blushing like a strawberry —Marcel Proust
9. Blushing like a tomato —E. V. Lucas
10. Blushing pink as dawn —George Garrett
11. Blush like a black dog —John Ray’s Proverbs
12. Blush like a geranium —Harry Graham
13. A blush that felt like a gasoline fire —R. V. Cassill
14. Color came to his face like blood on a galled fish —Loren D. Estleman
15. The color flew in her face like a flag —D. H. Lawrence
16. A deep flush enveloped him like darkness —Heinrich Böll
17. A delicate flush of pink … like the flush in the face of the bridegroom when he kissed the lips of the bride —Oscar Wilde
18. (I could feel my) face flaming as red as all the tomatoes in the world —H. C. Witwer
19. A faint blush, like the shadow of a rose in a mirror of silver came to her cheeks —Oscar Wilde
20. Felt shame flooding his cheeks like a hot geyser —Mark Helprin
21. His face went red as a peony —Julia O’Faolain
22. His neck flushing red even to his ears, like some overgrown schoolboy who had been made to recite when he didn’t know his lesson —John Yount
23. Red as a barn —Susan Fromberg Schaeffer
24. Red crawling across her face like a stain —Harvey Swados
25. Ruddiness spreading across her cheeks like a wound —Joseph Koenig
26. Turned all colors —as a peacock’s tail, or sunset streaming through a Gothic skylight —Lord Byron
27. Turned as red as a winter apple —American colloquialism

    The comparison of blushing cheeks to apples is common in everyday language as well as literature. An example of the latter: “Color like an apple” from Truman Capote’s short story, Children on Their Birthdays.

28. Turned red as … a nectarine, as a dahlia, as the most divinely red thing in the world —Colette