▪ I. † ˈrusher1 Obs.—1
[f. rush n.1]
One who strews rushes on a floor.
| 1630 B. Jonson New Inn v. i, Pipers, fidlers, rushers, puppet-masters, Jugglers, and gipsies. |
▪ II. rusher2
(ˈrʌʃə(r))
[f. rush v.2 + -er1.]
1. One who or that which rushes; one who acts precipitately or without deliberation.
With quot. 1796 cf. rush n.2 2 a.
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 148 Remit such Rushers not into the Church onely, but Pulpit, to the Philosophy Schoole to be shamed. 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), Rushers, thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London,..and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house; also housebreakers who enter lone houses by force. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. III. 148 We always thought a rusher [in a fight] no good at school. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. I. 82 He..was a rusher across country. 1887 Cyclist 11 May 739/1 This irrepressible writer and rusher to conclusions. |
2. U.S. One who takes part in a rush to a new gold-field or to new territory.
| 1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 629 Rushers, in California and all the gold-bearing districts of the West, is the comprehensive name of persons going to the mines. 1892 Current History I. 433 As many of the ‘rushers’ are very poor, there is sure to be great suffering in the territory. |
3. U.S. Football. A forward; any player who rushes (see rush v.2 6 g).
| 1883 Atlantic Monthly May 682/1 An attempt to break through the line of rushers, in a scrimmage. 1894 Outing XXIV. 215/2 Putting the goalkeepers..in the front and placing the tired rushers at the goals. 1969 Internat. Herald Tribune 6 Nov. 13/6 Floyd Little, leading rusher in the American Football League, suffered a sprained right knee. 1974 Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer 13 Oct. c. 6/2 Wellington carried 12 times for 129 yards to lead all rushers. 1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 3 Oct. id/4 The seventh-leading rusher in the city. |
4. colloq. A ‘go-ahead’ person.
| 1889 Century Mag. Oct. 874/1 The pretty girl from the East is hardly enough of a ‘rusher’ to please the young Western masculine taste. |