▪ I. flushing, n.
(ˈflʌʃɪŋ)
[f. Flushing (Du. Vlissingen) a port in Holland.]
A kind of rough and thick woollen cloth, so called from the place where it was first manufactured.
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple x, Pea jackets..made of..Flushing. 1879 Unif. Reg. in Navy List July (1882) 496/2 To be of flushing, with seven buttons..on each side. |
| attrib. 1832 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) I. 242 A..flushing jacket. 1837 Marryat Dog-fiend iii, Wrapped up in Flushing garments [he] looked..like a bear. |
▪ II. ˈflushing, vbl. n.
[f. flush v.2 + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb flush in various senses. † a. A rushing or splashing (of water). Obs.
| 1573 Twynne æneid. x. D d iv b, His monstrous saluage lims through froth, through fome with flushing launch. |
b. The cleansing (of a sewer, etc.) by a rush of water.
| 1853 Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., Flushing. 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 14 Nov. 12/2 The flushing of sewers is..a most important part, of the rapid removal of refuse. |
c. Of a plant: The sending out of new shoots.
| 1810 Scott Lady of Lake iii. xvi, Our flower was in flushing, When blighting was nearest. 1894 Times 6 Apr. 4/6 [Tea] plants exhibiting great difference in form and luxuriance of growth and flushing. |
2. A sudden flowing (of blood to the face); a wave (of heat); hence, reddening, redness.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 22 Walke about, and coole this flushing in the face. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 155. 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1180/4 A tall slender Man, with a great flushing in his face. 1731 Arbuthnot Aliments i. §2. 9 The Signs of the Functions of the Stomach being deprav'd, are..a Flushing in the Countenance [etc.]. 1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 11 Its approaches are marked by head-ach..flushings of heat. 1875 H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 348 Local flushings caused by small doses of the poison. |
3. A flush or wave (of emotion, success, etc.).
| a 1679 T. Goodwin Wks. V. ii. 163 It was not properly a Passion, which is a subitaneous flushing. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 351 ¶15 The transient Flushings of Guilt and Joy, which the Poet represents in our first Parents upon their eating the forbidden Fruit. 1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. (1783) IV. 78 This strange mortal..was so truly elevated by the present flushings of his prosperity, that he said and did [etc.]. |
4. attrib. and Comb.: as flushing cistern, flushing gate, flushing machine; also flushing-rim (House-plumbing), ‘a hollow rim pierced with holes surrounding a basin, through which water can be turned into the basin to flush it out’ (Cent. Dict.); flushing-wheel = flush-wheel.
| 1894 Daily News 9 Oct. 5/2 To raise the capacity of *flushing cisterns from two to three gallons. |
| 1856 Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. XVI. 43 *Flushing Machines, for cleansing house drains and sewers. |
| 1884 G. E. Waring in Century Mag. Dec. 263/1 The closet is supplied with water through an ordinary *flushing-rim. |
| 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 98/2 Automatic *Flushing Wheel for utilizing waste water from Baths. |
▪ III. flushing, ppl. a.
(ˈflʌʃɪŋ)
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
1. That flows quickly; rushing.
| 1550 Bale Image both Ch. iii. xix. C c iij b, It sounded..as it hadde bene the flushynge noyse of manye waters. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. vi. 29 The swift recourse of flushing blood. |
2. Exhibiting or producing a sudden glow.
| 1728–46 Thomson Spring 95 Array'd In all the colours of the flushing year. 1793 Southey Tri. Woman 307 No flushing fear that cheek o'erspread. 1820 Shelley Sensitive Pl. ii. 14 Her tremulous breath and her flushing face. |