flurn 
flurn (flern), v. i. [Appar. a dial. var. of fleer 1 
(MK. flam, flii-cn, Jlyren), or of flurt = flirt; 
perhaps assimilated to spurn.'] To sneer. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
Give me leave to flurn at them [abortive births], as the flush 1 (flush), 
poor excrescencies of nature, which rather blemish than ( ,,, aB(1 v hv n " ql]( 
adorn the structure of a well-composed body. 
Fletcher, Poems, Pref. 
flurry 1 (flur'i), .; pi. flun -icx (-iz). [Origin un- 
certain; cf. Norw. dial, flurutt, rough, shaggy, 
disordered, Sw. dial, flurig, disordered, disso- 
lute, overloaded, flur, face, head, disordered 
hair, whim, caprice. In the sense of a gust of 
wind, cf . flavfl, which may have affected this 
sense.] 1 . A state of perturbed action or feel- 
ing ; a violent agitation, physical or mental ; a 
disordered or excited movement ; flutter ; com- 
motion: as, to be in a continual flurry; to raise 
a flurry in an assembly. 
The paper never did better service than when in the 
iiin-i'i.'s and spasms of political excitement it kept its 
2289 
The red blood rose to flush his visage wan. 
H'illiiiin .l/.nvis, Earthly 1'aradise, I. 212. 
How faintly flitsh'd, how phantom-fair, 
Was Monte Rosa, hanging there ! 
.', The Daisy. 
1. A redness 
[< flush 1 , i:\ 
flush 
"flushed with victory," where the word is com- 
monly associated with flush 1 , as if it meant 
'thrown into a glow'; hence 'heated, excited'; 
it is, however, a corruption, by a natural confu- 
sion -with flush 1 , of flesh, v. t., encourage by giv- 
ing flesh to, excite, as dogs, by feeding with 
See how calm he looks and stately, 
Like a warrior on his shield, 
Waiting till the flush of morning 
Breaks along the battle-field. 
Aytoun, Burial Marcli of Dundee. 
The sudden flush faded from her face as she sat oppo- 
site to him, her astonished eyes still fixed upon him. 
Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xxxiv. 
2. Sudden impulse or excitement; a sudden 
thrill or shock, as of feeling: as, to feel a, flush 
of joy. 
It was not properly a passion, which is a subitaneous 
spirits of; animate with joy: originally the same 
as flesh. 
The Indian Neighbourhood, who were mortal Enemies 
to the Spaniards, and had been flusht by their Successes 
against them, through the assistance of the Privateers, 
for several years, were our fast Friends, and ready to re- 
ceive and assist us. Dampier, Voyages, I. 158. 
Such things as can only feed his pride and flush his 
bition. South, Sermons, II. 
The Opposition, flushed with victory and strongly up- 
ported by the public sympathy, proceeded to bring for- 
ward a succession of charges relating chiefly to pecuniary 
transactions. Macaulay, Warren Hastings. 
,K am- 
104. 
fiTtaS^JBB^SPSSiaB 1 ^ tt'Stttt^A^rSX **&*> puji^ *.**, 
O. s. lllfrriam. s. Bowles. II. 37. p<A of passion , but this or Uriah s murder was a more , .^ _,. t *.., tf m s t.,) fl v <vnr aiirMpnlv! 
safe. 
ff. S. iterriam, 3. Bowles, II. 37. 
But the flurry of the dissipation he had been through 
. . . made him feel so much alive that he felt no sense of 
loneliness. J. Hawthorne, Dust, p. 204. 
During the first week in May there was a slight flurry 
in money, and an advance to 7 per cent, on call, caused by 
the rioting at Chicago. Appleton's Ann. Cyc., 1886, p. 385. 
2. Specifically, of a whale, the death-agony; 
the spasmodic action of the animal while ex- 
piring. The head usually rises and falls, and the flukes 
strike the surface of the water rapidly, while the animal 
swims in a circle, till finally it rolls on its side dead. 
Both whales were seen spouting blood, and soon after 
pyramids of foam showed that they were in their flurry. 
C. M. Scammon, Marine Mammals, p. 267. 
continued distemper, sedately stirred, and retained and 
considered of. Goodwin, Works, V. ii. 163. 
When the morning flush 
Of passion and the first embrace had died 
Between them, . . . the master took 
Small notice. Tennyson, Lucretius. 
3. Bloom; glow. 
No busy steps the grass-grown foot-way tread, 
But all the bloomy flush of life is fled. 
Goldsmith, Des. Vil., 1. 128. 
After the flush of youth is over, a poet must have a wise 
method if he would move ahead. 
Stedman, Viet. Poets, p. 300. 
4. The hot stage of a fever. Hattiwell. [Prov. 
3. A sudden brief movement of air; an irregu- flu g|i (nugn ) . r< flush 1 v. In the second 
lar blast or gust: as, a .flurry of wind. 4. A genge ^ careely used exoep t in the poetical ex- 
fluttering assemblage of things^as snow-flakes, ampleg quo ted (first by Shakspere, in a fig. 
sense) and imitations of them. The sense is 
gathered from the context.] 1. Hot and heavy : 
said of the weather or the atmosphere. [Prov. 
Eng.] 2. In full bloom; in vigorous growth 
or condition. 
___ _______ , 
flissen, in pret. fluste, fliste), fly out suddenly; 
appar. the same as flyschen (rare) (fly out 
against?), thrust, strike against (of a spear); 
cf. E. dial, flusk, fly out suddenly, quarrel: see 
flusk, flusker, fluster. Fluslfi, being used in ref- 
erence to birds, seems to have a natural con- 
nection with flushS, able to fly; but fluslfi is a 
modern and corrupt form; the ME. forms of the 
two words are far apart.] I. intrans. To fly out 
suddenly, as a bird when disturbed ; start up or 
fly off. 
The blernyed boynard [blear-eyed rascal) . . . 
Made the Fawcon to ffloter and ffluush (for anger. 
Richard the Kedelesi, ii. 166. 
earned by or passing through the air. 
And, like & flurry of snow on the whistling wind of Decem- 
ber, 
Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery ar- 
rows. Longfellow, Miles Standish, vii. 
Sudden flurries of snow-birds, 
Like brown leaves whirling by. 
Lowell, First Snow-Fall. 
He took my father grossly, full of bread ; 
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May. 
Shak., Hamlet, iii. 3. 
On this flush pomegranate bough. 
Keats. 
5. In calico-printing, a state of frothiness de- 
veloped by some colors in the process of print- 
ing, due in some to quick printing and in others flush 2 (flush), v. [Another form of flash 1 = 
to slow printing. It is obviated by the use of flash"*, in a similar sense : see flosh 1 , flash?. 
glycerin, oil, turpentine, or alcohol. The form and sense may have been affected by 
flurry 1 (flur'i), v. t. ; pret. and pp. flurried, ppr. flux, F. flux, a flowing, running (see flux and 
flurrying. \_<. flurry 1 , .] To produce agitation flush), and by OD.fluysen^D&n. faaLfluse, flow 
of feeling in ; confuse by excitement or alarm. 
O lud 1 now, Mr. Fag you flurri/ one so ! 
Sheridan, The Rivals, ii. 2. 
It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this, . . . 
for I was too much flurried to think. Poe, Tales, 1. 160. 
flurry 2 (flur'i), a. In her., same asfleury. 
flurtt, v . and . An obsolete spelling of flirt. 
[flush. The several words spelled flush, being mostly dia- 
lectal, colloquial, or technical, and scantily recorded in 
early literature, have become partly confused with one 
another, and cannot now be entirely disentangled. Words 
originally different have acquired some meanings very 
nearly identical, while on the other hand there are some 
meanings not obviously related which are, nevertheless, 
to be referred to one original. The separation made in 
the following articles is based on the present differences 
of sense, and is probably more minute than the etymology, 
if fully known, would require.] 
flush 1 (flush), v. [Prob. of Scand. origin and 
ult. connected with flash 1 ; cf. Sw. dial flossa, 
burn furiously, blaze, Norw. flosa, passion, ve- 
hemence, eagerness : see further under flash 1 
and flare. The meaning touches those ot flush? 
and flush*, q. v., and in the phrase 'flush for 
anger' that of fluslfi (see first extract there). 
The meaning has probably been affected by the 
different word blush.'] I. intrans. To become 
suffused with color, as the face or the sky ; red- 
den; blush; glow. 
All this uniform uncolour'd scene 
Shall be dismantled of its fleecy load, 
And flush into variety again. 
Cowper, Task, vi. 180. 
Then flush'd her cheek with rosy light. 
Tennyson, Talking Oak. 
The afternoon was lovely, and it \vasflushing to a close. 
11. James, Jr., Little Tour, p. 22. 
The sky increased in brightness as we watched. The 
orange flush'd into rose. 
B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. 131. 
II. trans. To make suddenly red; suffuse 
with color; redden; cause to blush; cause to 
glow; color. 
\or rtiw/i with >hame the passing virgin's cheek. 
Gay, Trivia. 
144 
flushi/nge noyse of many waters. 
Bp. Bale, Image of the Two Churches, iii. 
There fliste ut a buterflije ... on min ije. 
Floriz and Blauncheflur (E. E. T. S.), 1. 473. 
I make them to flush, 
Each owl out of his bush. 
B. Jonton, Masque of Owls. 
Ho flushing from one spray unto another, 
Gets to the top, and then embolden'd flies 
Unto a height past ken of human eyes. 
W. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, i. 4. 
II. trans. In sporting, to rouse and cause to 
start up or fly off; spring: as, to flush a wood- 
cock; to flush a covey; to flush the trout. 
Spaniels, . . . for the purpose of flushing the game. 
Strult, Sports and Pastimes, p. 84. 
The full possession of the Tennessee River by the Union 
gun-boats for the moment hopelessly divided the Confed- 
erate commands, and like a flushed covey of birds the 
rebel generals started on their several lines of retreat 
without concert or rallying point. 
The Century, XXXVI. 662. 
d ?Jl^ G -Bufthe flush 5 (flush), . [< flush*, .] 1. The act of 
starting or flushing a bird. 2. A bird, or a 
" or sprung. 
As when a Fanlcon hath with nimble flight 
Flowne at a flush of Ducks foreby the brooke. 
Spenser, F. Q., V. ii. 54. 
(flush), . [E. dial., perhaps an exten- 
of the notion ' a good many,' implied, by 
an easy exaggeration, in 'a flush' of cards: 
see flush, n. The same notion is derivable, 
perhaps more easily, from ' a flush ' or flock of 
birds (see flush 6 , n.), or from flush 1 , n., bloom, 
flush 1 , a., in vigorous growth.] 1. A great 
number. Halliwcll. [Prov. Eng.] 2. Abun- 
dance ; exuberance. 
I thought o' the bonny bit thorn that our father rooted 
out o' the yard last May, when it had a' the flush o' blos- 
soms on it. Scott, Heart of Mid-Lothian, xx. 
[Origin not clear ; perhaps, 
flushes into the face," where the verb is rather 
flush 1 , the idea of color and not of motion 
prevailing.] I. trans. 1. Same asflosh 1 . Hal- 
with water for the purpose of cleansing; wash 
out, as a sewer, with a copious flow of water. 
The drainage system must be so constructed as ... to 
be frequently and thoroughly flushed. 
The Century, XXIX. 51. 
=Syn. 2. See plunge. 
II. intrans. 1. To flow swiftly ; especially, to 
flow and spread suddenly, as blood in the face : 
a use scarcely different from that of flush 1 , v.i. 
The swift recourse of flushing blood. 
Spenser, F. Q., IV. vi. 29. 
And it sounded vnto me enen as it hadde bene the flush 6 (flush), a. 
as here assumed, from the noun flush, a great 
number: see flush 6 , n. It is not easy to con- 
nect this word with/*7i2.] 1. Full, in any re- 
spect; exuberant; plentiful. 
His courage was flush, he'd venture a brush, 
2. To become fluxed or fluid. 
The solder flushes or becomes liquid enough to permeate 
the joint or crefrice. Farrow, Mil. Encyc., p. 224. 
flush 3 (flush), . [In the first sense another 
f orm oifloslft =flash3, as flush 2 is another form 
of flosh 1 = flash*: see floslft and flaslfi. Inthe 
other senses prob. dependent onfluslfi, v.] 1. 
A piece of moist ground; a place where water 
frequently lies; a morass. Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
2. A run of water. Jamieson. [Scotch.] 
The plane stretis and euery hie way 
Full of fluschis, dubbis, myre and clay. 
Gavin fouglas, tr. of Virgil, p. 201. 
3. An increase of water in a river. Halliwell. 
[Prov. Eng.] flush? (flush)', a. [Hardly other than a partic- 
^S%??g&& nio^Sgffit ularuse of flush* ^ full, though the precise con- 
manner of a wave or flush, but by the coats of the arteries nection of thought is not clear. 1 he pat 
themselves. * a door, for example, usually below the plane ot 
4 Snow in a state of dissolution ; slush. Jamie- the frame, seems to have been regarded as 'full' 
son [Scotch.] or 'flush 'when fixed even with that plane, th 
flush 4 (flush), v. t. [Nearly always in the pp., filling up the hollow space.] Having the sar- 
in such expressions as "flushed with success," face or face even or level with tl 
And thus they fell to it, ding-dong. 
Robin Hood and the Banger (Child's Ballads, V. 208). 
2. Well supplied, as with money: as, to be 
quite flush. Skinner, 1671. 
Lord Strut was not very flush in ready. 
Arbuthnot, Hist. John Bull. 
Tuffts, who describes himself as being always generous 
when flush of money, offered to pay his bill. 
Harper's Mag., LXXVI. 609. 
They are particularly flush just at present, as trade is 
brisk and profits are good. The American, IX. 19. 
g p rodi j . wasteful< Halliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
