1no object (of a person's skin, face, etc.) become red and hot, typically as the result of illness or strong emotion.

1. 1.1with object Cause (a person's skin or face) to become red and hot.
   the chill air flushed the parson's cheeks

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Kristen added, rushing to her feet as well, a rosy blush flushing her cheeks.
   • A brief thank-you and a hint of a blush flushes her cheeks, she takes a sip of cold fruity Pimms and listens in for a cue in the conversation she can jump in on.
   • Hot embarrassment flushed her cheeks as she threw back the quilt, taking care not to crease it.
   • Lucinda quickly regained her composure, a dark blush flushing her pale cheeks, as she reopened the book, hurriedly skimming the past page.
   • She was thankful for the darkness because of the blush that flushed her cheeks.
   • She would sharply bit on her bottom lip to colour them without the use of any lip colourings, pinching the apples of her cheeks to flush them to a pleasing rosy colour.
   • A faint red stain of a blush flushes his cheeks.
   • Her cheeks had been flushed from the morning chill and her green eyes bright with unchecked spirit.

   Synonyms

   red, pink, ruddy, glowing, reddish, pinkish, florid, high-coloured, healthy-looking, aglow, burning, flaming, feverish, rubicund, roseate, rosy
2. 1.2 Glow or cause to glow with warm color or light.
   with object the sky was flushed with the gold of dawn

   no object the ash in the center of the fire flushed up

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Rains fell several weeks ago, and now the desert tones have flushed to a salmon pink dusted with new green vegetation.
   • It is an evergreen or semi-evergreen multi-stemmed shrub with lance shaped leaves that are purplish when young and flushed with colour in autumn.
   • Keleus thrust his spear into the earth and looked upon the dying sky, flushed in crimson, and he whispered unto the winds.
   • The flowers are large and wallflower red on the outside, the inner colour being soft orange flushed with red towards the tip, fading to a paler, softer throat.
   • Dawn too was a light show with the sky flushed into pastel shades.
   • The green is often variegated with yellow or white - the variegation itself can be flushed with pink and may be marbled, blotched or neatly edge each leaf.

2with object Cleanse (something, especially a toilet) by causing large quantities of water to pass through it.

1. 2.1no object (of a toilet) be cleansed by flushing.
   Cally heard the toilet flush

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The only problem is that I can hear every time the toilet flushes, and that ain't cool.
   • The toilet flushed and he emerged from the bathroom, ‘nasty dude, there's mould in the shower.’
   • The toilet flushed and Jon appeared, barefoot and exhausted.
   • According to workers, the toilets had not flushed for eight days.
   • In one room, 12 toilets are flushing as if under ghostly control; an electronic machine is pulling the virtual levers - and manipulating water temperature and pressure as well.
   • It was all I could do to keep from laughing as I discussed filling in forms and so on, whilst loos flushed all around me.
   • As soon as the toilet flushed inside, Kelly unlocked the door and pressed out the other side, through the laundry room.
   • The toilet flushed, and, after a few more minutes, he came out.
   • At times the toilets would not flush, and at other times the floors were wet.
   • She stooped to look at what Andrew had been writing, but had only scanned a few lines when the toilet flushed and Andrew emerged from the bathroom.
   • I yanked the handle, the lavatory flushed, and the yellow faded.
   • Then, to Chloe's relief, she heard the toilet flushing down the hallway and the door to Jax's parents' room closing.
   • The toilet flushes and Hannah nods towards the closed stall.
   • The toilet flushes, there is the sound of hands being washed, and Ian steps out of the bathroom.
   • After she hears that toilet bowl flush she had better hear the sound of somebody washing their hands - or else.
   • I heard the sounds of his yelling and the toilet flushing together.
   • Several of the toilets did not flush properly.
   • External doors and windows were sealed, there was no ventilation and toilets could not flush during the wait.
   • She giggled some more and I heard the toilet flushing.
   • I heard disturbing noises of him gagging and throwing up and the toilet flushing.
2. 2.2 Remove or dispose of (an object or substance) by flushing.
   I flushed the pills down the toilet

   the kidneys require more water to flush out waste products

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Seven rivers were made to flow through the city's sewers and served to flush any sewage out of them.
   • However, drink plenty of fluids to flush the radioactive substance from your body.
   • Many watched helplessly as their life savings were flushed down the drain.
   • Every six months, Dorothy has to flush excess minerals from the potting soil by pouring water through the pots until it runs out clear.
   • It will help to flush all the bad toxins out of your system.
   • I drank the requisite giant glass of water to begin flushing the alcohol out of my system and now I'll go take a shower to wash the cigarette smoke out of my hair and restore my cheer before sleep.
   • Without rest, muscles do not receive enough oxygen and other nutrients from the blood and are unable to flush lactic acid and other metabolic wastes.
   • They also found people willing to talk about the pollution at East End Beach, where sewage was flushed into the sea.
   • He said he's satisfied that because of heavy rains which flushed the detergent out, no permanent damage was done to the creek.
   • Your kidneys will try to flush the salts out of your body in urine, and in the process pump out more water than you are taking in.
   • Would my body flush this substance out of my system if I quit eating carrots now?
   • Like alcohol, coffee is a diuretic, which flushes fluids from the body.
   • Most get flushed down the toilet, and eventually end up in the oceans.
   • This flushes the salt out of the plants' root zones and should minimize any detrimental effects.
   • It helps to flush the excess fluids out of your system.
   • I advised her to drink a lot of water and do some exercise to try to flush the caffeine out of her system as soon as possible.
   • Girlfriends of mine have brought drugs to my house and I've had to flush drugs away and I kicked all of those people out of my life.
   • Drink a 1.5-litre bottle of water a day to flush out toxins.
   • Unfortunately, the only thing we can do is hope to flush the poison out of his system.
   • By applying bodybuilders' favorite stratagems for cutting salt intake and flushing excess sodium from the system, you can look 50 workouts fitter in just a couple of days.

   Synonyms

   rinse, rinse out, wash, wash down, wash out, sluice, swill, cleanse, clean, hose, hose down, swab
3. 2.3 Cause (a liquid) to flow through something.
   0.3 ml of saline is gently flushed through the tube

   Example sentencesExamples

   • This procedure flushed the solution throughout the heart muscle, even changing the heart's color as it rushed through the veins.
   • One milliliter of sterile saline is flushed into the middle ear cavity and aspirated back.
   • She considers it fun to flush saline solution through the port in her chest.
   • At each watering, plants were given enough liquid so that at least 50 ml of liquid flushed through the pot, which was then left to drain until the next watering.
   • Detergent was flushed through the channels which were then brushed.
   • The first few times it happened, I screamed blue murder for the nurse, who came and simply opened the clamp, increasing the flow and flushing the blood back into the vein in a wonderfully cold ripply gush.

3with object and adverbial of direction Drive (a bird, especially a game bird, or an animal) from its cover.

1. 3.1 Cause to be revealed; force into the open.
   they're trying to flush Tilton out of hiding

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Careful arrangements were made to flush him out of his hiding place.
   • Again, there is not very much wrong with that - the police have primacy to enforce the law while the army, backed by the air force, flush the guerrillas out into the open.
   • The forces tried to flush them out by flooding the mains, but the resisters managed to stop the water supply.
   • One theory has it that the military did not surround and arrest them but instead flushed them out of the bush to run for cover and to disband and disperse.
   • In an effort the flush the men out, the army has been blaring loudspeakers, firing stun grenades and firing bullets into the air.
   • This measure will help flush out the most grasping seniors.

4no object (of a plant) send out fresh shoots.

1A reddening of the face, skin, etc., typically caused by illness or strong emotion.

1. 1.1 An area of warm color or light.
   the bird has a pinkish flush on the breast

   Example sentencesExamples

   • But the surfaces were now coloured in soft flushes of pink or orange and the marks blurring toward integration with the surfaces.
   • Wine works well for adding that lovely, rosy flush in the absence of pink light bulbs.
   • The sky was cloudless, deep violet with a flush of rose at the edge.
   • Whatever his technique, the effect was to create suave and radiant flushes of colour, with no sense of brush gesture or hint of figuration.
   • Further down the display boards, the first flushes of colour catch the visitor's eye.

2in singular A sudden rush of intense emotion.

1. 2.1 A period when something is new or particularly fresh and vigorous.
   he is no longer in the first flush of youth

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He wasn't in the first flush of youth, but he was up for everything, always smiling, always full of energy.
   • She was a tall woman, who was no longer in the very first flush of youth.
   • Looking for deeper feelings beyond the first flush of love was outside the scope of the research.
   • Thirty or forty years ago, in the first flush of the sexual revolution, such ignorance would be forgivable.
   • Perhaps I am grievously mistaken, and have fallen victim to unsound emotion or the first flush of fatherhood.
   • The place was fairly hopping when I got there and the great music from Joe Newman had these folks, many of them not in the first flush of youth, having a ball.
   • And as someone who is not exactly in the first flush of enthusiasm for the many gifts of my fellow Dundonian, let me say at once that I thought Mr Galloway was brilliant.
   • With neither of them in the first flush of youth, he worries about what will happen to his collection when he is gone.
   • Many of those players already had some years in the game behind them but there were also quite a few, like Matt, who were still in the first flush of youth.
   • She and Pacino have been glimpsed gamboling in Central Park with two-year-old twins Olivia and Anton as if they were in the first flush of wedded bliss.
   • The seam bowling is particularly thin, and Chris Silverwood is not in the first flush of youth anymore.
   • Inevitably, after the first flush of friendship, latent problems begin to rise to the surface.
   • The first movie was laced with youthful optimism and the first flush of romance and the possibilities that had seemed endless.
   • Even though it has now past the first flush of youth, the Ford Fiesta leads its segment for 2004.
   • While both men have a long list of achievements to their credit, neither is in the first flush of youth.
   • While she may not be in the first flush of youth, she is hardly an unsightly wreck, and the faults she highlights about her body loom large to no one except her.
   • It's a fair bet that most people who need spectacles are no longer in the first flush of youth, so could someone please explain why the choice was so universally cool and hip.
   • I tried to come up with an answer but can't get my mind away from the tag my darling husband gave me during the first flush of our enduring romance, may he be forever blessed.
   • In the first flush of love, we care about how we look, then we get comfortable.

   Synonyms

   bloom, glow, freshness, radiance, vigour, rush
2. 2.2 A sudden abundance or spate of something.
   the frogs feast on the great flush of insects

   Example sentencesExamples

   • For some local merchants, the initial flush of spending by farmers making the switch is good business.
   • Hatching coincides with the onset of the rainy season and the concomitant flush of insect populations.
   • But where is this concerted flush of global attention taking Mexican cinema?
   • Here you get both an autumn and winter flush of fish, then a secondary spring run through April and May.
   • The company chief insists that 20 new models will buoy unit sales in the second half of 2003, but a flush of younger cars alone will not fix the company's problems.
3. 2.3 A fresh growth of leaves, flowers, or fruit.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Leaf emergence pattern is synchronic when leaves emerge as a flush during a short period, or continuous when leaves emerge gradually during the growth period.
   • As with other species, annual shoots of apple display flushes of growth interrupted by periods of rest.
   • Cut off spent flowers to promote additional flushes of bloom.
   • You can trim again in late spring, if required, after the initial flush of new growth.
   • So many wildgardeners add annual seed to their meadow areas each spring, since they want to assure a full flush of annual bloom.
   • The one exception is late in the season when the last flush of flowers has set fruit.
   • All light trimming of summer flowering shrubs that have repeated flushes during the season could be carried out so as to allow for them to have developed a fresh flush of flowers in time for Christmas.
   • The later-picked second flush delivers a deeper colour and more robust flavours than a first flush.
   • The signals that modulate the timing of spring bud flush are, predominately, winter chilling and spring temperatures.
   • All trees were scored weekly for the date of bud set and bud flush in autumn of 1997 and spring of 1998, respectively.
   • After the flowers finish it's a good idea to leave the flowering stems, which will often produce a second flush later in the season.
   • In September leaf flush began and two months later the individuals showed mature leaves throughout the tree crown.
   • Gardeners also benefit from this beauty during the late summer, when it produces edible yellow fruits after a flush of saucer-shaped flowers.
   • There's not much in bloom in my garden just now apart from a second flush on the roses, and they're small, sad looking things this year.
   • A once-blooming rose with its extended flush of blossoms may work equally as well as a remontant rose under the same conditions.
   • Damage is most common during summer flushes of new fern growth.
   • To encourage growth and additional flushes of flowers, feed repeat bloomers with a complete fertilizer.
   • Others cover themselves with a big flush of flowers just once a year.
   • Chanterelles grow in flushes, so revisit likely spots.
   • It bears yellow-centered, bright pink blossoms in one long flush in early summer.

3An act of cleansing something, especially a toilet, with a sudden flow of water.

1. 3.1 The device used for producing a flow of water in a toilet.
   he pressed the flush absentmindedly

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Pushing the flush down on the toilet, I stood up slowly.
   • He cursed out of a regular habit as he pulled the flush down on the toilet.
   • Everyone is impressed by the flush on an aeroplane toilet.
   • Drinking water came from the sink in the toilet, the flush of which was operated by pulling a metal hanger in the cistern.
   • I am hopeless at fixing things but when the toilet flush goes wonky I can always tell exactly what is wrong even if I have to get a man in to do something about it.
2. 3.2as modifier Denoting a type of toilet that has a flush device.
   a flush toilet

   Example sentencesExamples

   • There were very few flush lavatories even at foreign companies, hotels and apartments, let alone ordinary residences.
   • Rather than spending money and time getting an engineering report and educating the officials, I decided to install a flush toilet.
   • Here there's no running water, no flush latrines, no sanitation.
   • The aqueducts provided public baths with hydrous spectacles and private houses with running water and flush toilets.
   • There is no flush toilet in the bathroom - or anywhere else for that matter.
   • The float looks like the common floats found in flush toilets.
   • Plans are to equip them with ceilings, solar panels, low flush toilets and water tanks to promote water harvesting and reduce dependency on municipal services.
   • This method probably won't gain approval from most health officials as a replacement for a flush toilet.
   • Showers and toilets were not separate, there was no toilet paper and in some cases no flush toilets.
   • All residential flush toilets operate in pretty much the same way.
   • A sewage treatment facility to be built this summer will allow flush toilets, and all of the new rooms will have their own bathrooms.
   • It has no electricity and no flush toilets - just Portaloos which are emptied once a fortnight.
   • It is ironical that in a country as water starved as ours, that the flush toilet that uses less water is more expensive than one that minimises water use.
   • After chemical treatment, the water from the flush toilet is clean enough for people to wash their hands.
3. 3.3 A sudden flow.
   the melting snow provides a flush of water

   Example sentencesExamples

   • A lot of the lakes are dry, but the river itself, there's been a few little flushes coming down, and many people along the river have been carting water for their stock and domestic purposes.
   • Neville says despite some flows down the river in the last 12 months, it's still in dire need of a good flush of water to pick the system up.
   • By capturing the first flush of rain, the rain gardens help prevent pollution from entering waterways.
   • On the third day, we reckoned the rain was great and isn't it good that the Todd is getting a proper flush, while we secretly hoped that the drizzle would stop.
   • Tope love the first flush of a new tide as it begins to gain a little speed and washes over the structure you're fishing.
   • The Ouse was the highlight of weekend match action once again having benefited from a mid-week flush of fresh water.
   • What we need is a good flush through the Richmond River system (certainly not a major flood).

4The action of driving a game bird from its cover.

1Completely level or even with another surface.

1. 1.1 (of printed text) not indented or protruding.
   each line is flush with the left-hand margin

   Example sentencesExamples

   • All text is flush left unless otherwise indicated, with ½ inch indent on first line of paragraph.
   • Second, center the entire page on the screen instead of having it flush left.
   • I'd prefer it looked like this, with a flush left margin.
   • Left alignment ensures all text is flush with left margin and ragged on the right margin.
   • Computer applications like Microsoft Word have us trained that PC-screen content is always flush left?
2. 1.2 (of a door) having a smooth surface, without indented or protruding panels or moldings.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • A wide assortment of ornamental carved doors, seasoned flush doors, imported modular skin panel doors and doorframes would be available.
   • When retracted, the gears were fully enclosed by mechanically operated flush doors.
   • A flush door was kicked in and a neighbour crawled into the flat on his hands and knees and dragged the occupant to safety.
   • A recently discovered block-and-shell bureau table by John Townsend - one of only two with a flush door - is said to have descended directly from the cabinetmaker.

2informal predicative Having plenty of something, especially money.

1. 2.1 (of money) plentiful.
   the years when cash was flush

   Example sentencesExamples

   • When money's flush, hiring help isn't a bad thing.
   • The port and claret were laid down in happier times, when cash was flush and planning for the future mattered.
   • A lot of the projects were started when money was flush.
   • They have a great deal with Nike and other sponsorship dollars are flush despite what happened in Germany last year.
   • Don't rush to hire when sales turn strong and cash is flush.

   Synonyms

   plentiful, abundant, copious, ample, profuse, superabundant, infinite, inexhaustible, opulent, prolific, teeming, in abundance

1So as to be level or even.

1. 1.1 So as to be directly centered; squarely.
   Jumbo reached up and hit Bruno flush on the jaw

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Off the tee I hit the ball flush with the sweet spot of the driver.
   • This is a sign they've really caught the ball flush and created a strong, piercing ball flight.
   • She punched him flush in the jaw, then kicked him in the gut to double him over.
   • A left hook caught him flush on the jaw and he staggered across the ring.
   • If you get caught flush on the chin that's fair enough.

Fill in (a joint) level with a surface.

(in poker) a hand of cards all of the same suit.

A piece of wet ground over which water flows without being confined to a definite channel.