▪ I. † lush, n.1 Obs.
[f. lush v.1]
A stroke, blow.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 3848 With the lussche of the launce he lyghte one hys schuldyrs. c 1440 York Myst. xxviii. 271 Here with a lusshe, lordayne, I schalle þe allowe. 1887 Jamieson's Dict. Suppl., Lush, a stroke, blow, cut, as with a wand or cane. |
▪ II. lush, n.2 slang.
(lʌʃ)
[Of obscure origin: perh. suggested by lush a.]
1. a. Liquor, drink.
| 1790 Potter Dict. Cant. (1795), Lush, drink. 1796 Grose's Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Lush, strong beer. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Lush, beer or liquor of any kind. 1829 Lytton Disowned 5 I'll find the lush. 1840 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 189 Cheering the workmen with good words and ‘lush’. 1872 Mrs. E. Lynn Linton J. Davidson viii. 160 ‘It's no use, governor’ he said..in his drunken way; ‘work and no lush too hard for me, governor! |
b. A drinking bout.
| 1841 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 214 We ended the day with a lush at Véry's. 1896 A. D. Coleridge Eton in Forties 363 On very special occasions..there would be a ‘lush’, when every mess brewed its punch, or egg-flip. |
c. A habitual drunkard, one addicted to drink.
| 1890 J. A. Riis How Other Half Lives (1891) xix. 221 The first long step in crime taken by the half-grown boy..is usually to rob a ‘lush’, i.e., a drunken man who has strayed his way. 1899 Ade Doc Horne i. 1 ‘My uncle didn't think so,’ remarked the lush. Ibid. iv. 39 The drinking man, often mentioned as the lush. 1945 J. Steinbeck Cannery Row xxix. 124, I don't like to leave the place without a man. Some lush might get smart and the kids couldn't handle him. 1958 J. & W. Hawkins Death Watch (1959) 135 She took a drink now and then, but she wasn't a lush. 1958 Spectator 14 Feb. 210/1 Some high-class Hollywood bitches and lushes. 1972 D. Delman Sudden Death (1973) iii. 94 He's a drunk, ain't he?.. He's a lush. And a lush is a lousy security risk. |
2. Comb.: lush-crib, -ken, = lushing-ken (see lushing vbl. n.); lush-head, -hound, a drunkard; lush-roller, -worker, one who steals from drunks.
| 1790 Potter Dict. Cant. (1795), Lush ken, an alehouse. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Lush-crib or Lush-ken, a public-house, or gin-shop. 1823 Blackw. Mag. XIII. 457 On leaving the lush-crib, we can figure them giving fippence to the drawer. 1925 H. Leverage in Flynn's IV. 869/2 Lush-roller, one who robs drunken men. 1930 Lush-worker [see glom v.]. 1935 G. Ingram ‘Stir’ Train ii. 31 He's a ‘lush-hound’ and I knew he must be a coward. 1945 L. Shelly Jive Talk Dict. 29/1 Lush head, chronic drinker. 1946 Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues (1957) Dedication, To all the junkies and lushheads in two-bit scratchpads. 1948 Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 682 A creep-joint or panel-house is one in which patrons are robbed, a roller or mush-worker is a girl who robs them, and a lush-worker is one who specializes in drunks. 1957 Amer. Speech XXXII. 278 Zoot suit meaning flashy clothes, and lushhead or lush for drunkard are no longer considered good jazz lingo, though they are or were in common nonjazz usage. |
▪ III. lush, a.1
(lʌʃ)
Also 5 lusch, 6 lushe.
[? Onomatopœic alteration of lash a. 3.]
1. Lax, flaccid; soft, tender. Obs. exc. dial.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 317/2 Lusch, or slak, laxus. 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. xv. 189 b, Then greene, and voyd of strength, and lush, and foggye, is the blade. 1580 Blundevil Curing Horses v. 4 b, The flesh of his lips and of all his bodie is lush and feeble. 1587 Golding tr. Solinus vii. G, Shrubbes, which so soone as they be in the deepes of the water, are lushe and almost like a grystle to touch. 1815 Monthly Mag. XXXIX. 125 (Essex Dialect), Lush, Loose. 1847 Halliwell s.v., Ground easily turned over is said to be lush. 1898 B. Kirkby Lakeland Wds. (E.D.D.), That beef's varra lush and tender. |
2. a. Of plants, esp. of grass: Succulent, and luxuriant in growth.
The literary currency of this sense (which seems still to exist in s.w. dialects) is due to the recollection of the instance in Shakes. (quot. 1610). A conjecture of Theobald's, adopted by Johnson and many later editors, substituted ‘lush woodbine’ (metri gr.) for ‘luscious woodbine’ in Mids. N. ii. i. 251. The conjecture is now discredited, but the passage as emended has had many echoes in 19th c. literature.
| 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. i. 52 How lush and lusty the grasse lookes? 1817 Keats ‘I stood tiptoe’ 31 And let a lush laburnum oversweep them. 1818 ― Endym. i. 941 Overhead, Hung a lush screen of drooping weeds. 1820 Shelley Question iii. 1 In the warm hedge grew lush eglantine. 1832 Tennyson Dream Fair Women xviii, And at the root thro' lush green grasses burn'd The red anemone. 1862 W. W. Story Roba di R. i. (1864) 1 The broken arches of a Roman bridge, nearly buried in the lush growth of weeds, shrubs, and flowers. 1867 Spectator 6 Apr. 384 The lush tropical forests of South America. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xiii, Lush meadows, with the cattle standing deep in the grass. 1876 Browning Pacchiarotto Prol. ii, And lush and lithe do the creepers clothe Yon wall I watch, with a wealth of green. 1884 Sat. Rev. 19 July 80 Bound together by the lush growth of the bramble. |
b. Of a season: Characterized by luxuriance of vegetation.
| 1818 Keats Endym. i. 46 And, as the year Grows lush in juicy stalks, I'll smoothly steer My little boat [etc.]. 1891 T. Hardy Tess II. 109 The supernumerary milkers of the lush green season had been dismissed. |
c. Luxuriantly covered with.
| 1863 Lytton Caxtoniana xxii, The farmers..allow their hedges to..spread four yards thick, all lush with convolvulus and honeysuckle. |
d. transf. and fig. Also, luxurious; of a woman: sexually attractive.
| 1851 Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. i. 1088 Mow this green lush falseness to the roots. 1891 T. Hardy Tess II. 55 The æsthetic, sensuous, pagan pleasure in natural life and lush womanhood. 1939 Punch 8 Nov. 517/1 Business-men from neutral countries should be met with red-carpeted gangways and military bands, and passed in lush motor-cars from one feast to the next. 1942 [see bint n.2]. 1958 Economist 8 Nov. 497/2 The egg board's lush new London headquarters. |
¶ 3. Shakespeare's use has by some writers been misapprehended as referring to colour.
| 1744 Shaks. Wks. (ed. Hanmer) VI. Gloss., Lush [Temp. ii. i. 52], of a dark deep full Colour, opposite to pale and faint. 1860 T. Martin Horace 60 The lush rose lingers late. |
4. Comb.
| 1818 Keats Endym. ii. 52 Listening still, Hour after hour, to each lush-leaved rill. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. iv. 52 The lush-cold blue-bells. |
Hence ˈlushly adv., ˈlushness.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 317/2 Luschly, laxe (K.P. rare). 1883 R. Broughton Belinda III. iv. iv. 231 The long lythrums growing lushly beside them. 1900 Contemp. Rev. Apr. 552 In the lushness of early summer. 1902 Nation (N.Y.) 9 Jan. 39/2 The customary lushness of rhetoric that is rather French than English. |
▸ slang (chiefly Brit.). Excellent, great; ‘cool’.
| 1953 K. Horne & R. Murdoch Much Binding in Marsh in New Partridge Dict. Slang (2006) II. 1246/2 ‘Would you like to hear it?’ ‘Oh rather! That would be absolutely lush.’ 1991 M. Dibdin Dirty Tricks (1992) 207, I was gross, I was everything that was not awesome, radical, trif, wicked, lush and crucial. 2004 C. Bateman Driving Big Davie i. 2 Joe, the man who..stood for everything that was good and lush about rock'n'roll was pushing up daisies. |
▪ IV. lush, a.2 slang.
(lʌʃ)
(See quot.)
| 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Lush, or Lushy, drunk. |
▪ V. lush, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: 4 lusshe, luysche, lusse, lusche, (pa. tense loste, luste), 5 lusche, loushe, lusk, 9 losh, 6– lush.
[? Echoic variant of lash v.]
1. intr. To rush, dash; to come down with a rush.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 8117 (Kölbing) Hou our wiȝtlinges so hende On þe heþen wiþ swordes losten. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 2977 Mast & sayl, doun hit lusched [v.r. lussed], Cordes, kables, casteles, tofrusched. a 1350 S. Anastasia 114 in Horstm. Altengl. Leg. (1881) 26 Þe Emperours men..Lusshed opon him. ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1459 With lufly launcez one lofte they luyschene to-gedyres. Ibid. 2226 He laughte owtte a lange swerde, and luyschede one ffaste. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 114 He thought he harde the devylle loushe, He start into a bryer boushe. c 1470 Golagros & Gaw. 1003 Thai luschit and laid on, thai luflyis of lyre. 1566 Drant Horace A iij, The bancke hath burst, that down they lush, and so be drente at laste. 18.. Whitehead Leg. 19 (Cumberld. Gl.) For seun she grows a lusty beck An layks an loshes ower the steaynes. |
2. trans. To strike.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 6875 (Kölbing) Þer was..mani of his hors ylust. Ibid. 7750 Our cristen..out of þe sadel mani lust. Ibid. 9797 Anoþer to þe chine he luȝste. c 1400 Destr. Troy 6730 He hurlet forth vnhyndly, harmyt full mony, Of þe ledis, þat hym led, luskit to ground. c 1440 York Myst. xxxi. 10 Þus schall I..lusshe all youre lymmys with lasschis. Ibid. xlvi. 37 Þei lusshed hym, þei lasshed hym. 14.. MS. Soc. Antiq. 101 lf. 72 (Halliw.) These lions bees lusked and lased on sondir. 1890 Glouc. Gloss., Lush, to beat down wasps with a bough. |
† 3. To bring out with a rush. In quot. fig. Obs.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xx. 129 Thei kunnen bi herte the textis of Holi Scripture and kunnen lussche hem out thikke at feest, and at ale drinking. |
▪ VI. lush, v.2 slang.
(lʌʃ)
[f. lush n.2]
1. trans. To ply with ‘lush’ or drink; to liquor.
| 1821 Life D. Haggart 18 We had lushed the coachman so neatly, that Barney was obliged to drive. 1838 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 142 To lush the Keyhavenites with four gallons of swill. 1888 E. J. Goodman Too Curious xxii, To lush me and feed me so as to get on my blind side. |
2. a. intr. To drink, indulge in drink. Also to lush it.
| 1811 Lex. Balatronicum, Lush, to drink. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II. 252 Smoke, take snuff, lush. 1835 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 90 The captain and his mate having..‘lushed it’ ashore all night. 1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1864) I. 187/2, I was out of work two or three weeks, and I certainly lushed too much. |
b. trans. To drink.
| 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxxix, Some of the richest sort you ever lushed. |
3. With up. a. intr. To get drunk. b. trans. To ply with drink, to make (a person) drunk. c. trans. To provide with a luxurious standard of living.
| 1926 Maines & Grant Wise-Crack Dict. 10/2 Lush up, to get drunk. 1927 K. Nicholson Barker 150 Get lushed up, become intoxicated. 1927 Punch 25 May 573/1 He at once enclosed a bit of tennis-lawn for them [sc. rabbits] as a manège..and altogether lushed them up to the good things of this world. 1933 Wodehouse Mulliner Nights ii. 48 If I lush this cat up satisfactorily, shall I not be in a position later on to make a swift touch? 1952 W. R. Burnett Vanity Row (1953) xv. 107 Mr. Hobart got so lushed up... He was spilling drinks down the front of his shirt. 1959 R. Gant World in Jug 39 By that time Andy Mendoza had got himself lushed up and started careening around the set playing a slow drag. 1960 News Chron. 9 Apr. 3 (caption) You are lushed up on the good life and are convinced that we never had it so mechanised and marvellous. 1961 Wodehouse Ice in Bedroom i. 8, I see you're lushing up the dumb chums. |