lush

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See also: Lush

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lʌʃ/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌʃ

Etymology 1

From Middle English lusch (“slack, relaxed, limp, loose”), from Old English *lysċ, lesċ (“slack; limp”), from Proto-West Germanic *laskw, from Proto-Germanic *laskwaz (“weak, false, feeble”), from Proto-Indo-European *lēy- (“to let; leave behind”).

Akin to Old English lysu, lesu (“false, evil, base”), Middle Low German lasch (“slack”), Middle High German er-leswen (“to become weak”), Old Norse lǫskr (“weak, feeble”), Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐍃𐌹𐍅𐍃 (lasiws, “weak, feeble”), Middle Low German las, lasich (“slack, languid, idle”), Low German lusch (“loose”). Doublet of lusk. More at lishey, lazy.

Adjective

lush (comparative lusher, superlative lushest)

  1. Juicy, succulent.
    Synonyms: sapful, sappy
  2. (dialectal) Mellow; soft; (of ground or soil) easily turned; fertile.
  3. (of vegetation) Dense, teeming with life; luxuriant.
    • 2006, Stefani Jackenthal, New York Times:
      Some of the world’s best rain forest and volcanic hiking can be found within the lush canopied Caribbean trail systems. Chock-full of waterfalls and hot springs, bright-colored birds and howling monkeys, flora-lined trails cut through thick, fragrant forests and up cloud-covered mountains.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Planets: Virmire Codex entry:
      Virmire is a lush world located on the frontier of the Attican Traverse. Its vast seas and orbital position on the inner life zone have created a wide equatorial band of humid, tropical terrain.
    • 2013 January, Nancy Langston, “The Fraught History of a Watery World”, in American Scientist‎, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 22 January 2013, page 59:
      European adventurers found themselves within a watery world, a tapestry of streams, channels, wetlands, lakes and lush riparian meadows enriched by floodwaters from the Mississippi River.
  4. (of food) Savoury, delicious.
    That meal was lush! We have to go to that restaurant again sometime!
  5. Thriving; rife; sumptuous.
    • 2005, Donald Hall, The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 105:
      They rolled into Jane's room a wheeled cart lush with cake and cookies and shrimp and crudités and pop and soda water. The staff was giving us a going-away party for our trip to Seattle; it was good to understand their confidence.
  6. (British, slang) Beautiful, sexy.
    Boys with long hair are lush!
  7. (British, Canada, slang) Amazing, cool, fantastic, wicked.
    Your voice is lush, Lucy! I could listen to it all day!
  8. (obsolete) Lax; slack; limp; flexible.
Translations

Etymology 2

Perhaps a humorous use of the preceding word, or perhaps from Shelta lush (“food and drink”)[1] (the sense "liquor" is older than the sense "drinker"). The Century Dictionary wrote that it was "said to be so called from one Lushington, a once well-known London brewer", but the Online Etymology Dictionary considers lushington (“drinker”) a humorous extension of lush instead.[2]

Noun

lush (countable and uncountable, plural lushes)

  1. (slang, derogatory) A drunkard, sot, alcoholic.
    Synonyms: souse, suck-pint; see also Thesaurus:drunkard
    • 1973 December 8, A. Nolder Gay, “Coping With Christmas”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 25, page 3:
      Overaged and lecherous lushes at office parties profaning the text, music, and meaning of Christmas carols.
  2. (slang) Intoxicating liquor.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:alcoholic beverage
    • 1841, Charles Lever, Charles O'Malley:
      If your care comes, in the liquor sink it, / Pass along the lush — I'm the boy can drink it.
  3. (Hawaii, Pidgin, slang) A person who enjoys talking about themselves.
    Synonyms: egotist, narcissist
    Am I humble or am I a lush?
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

lush (third-person singular simple present lushes, present participle lushing, simple past and past participle lushed)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To drink (liquor) to excess.
Derived terms
Translations

References

  1. ^ An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English →ISBN
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “lush”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

Albanian

Etymology

Check lushë.

Noun

lush m

  1. male dog
  2. hooligan
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