English

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Etymology

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From on- +‎ rush. Compare Middle English onresen (to rush upon; attack), from Old English onrǣsan (to rush, rush on); Old English onrǣs (an onrush, assault, attack).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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onrush (plural onrushes)

  1. A forceful rush or flow forward.
    • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh[1], New York: C.S. Francis & Co., published 1857, First Book, pp. 32-33:
      The love within us and the love without
      Are mixed, confounded; if we are loved or love,
      We scarce distinguish. So, with other power.
      Being acted on and acting seem the same:
      In that first onrush of life’s chariot-wheels,
      We know not if the forests move or we.
    • 1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 22, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959:
      For a brief moment the onrush of the egwugwu [masked men representing ancestral spirits] was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men. But it was only a momentary check, like the tense silence between blasts of thunder. The second onrush was greater than the first. It swallowed up the two men.
    • 1987 July 31, Paul Goldberger, “A Baker’s Dozen of New York City’s Urban Masterpieces”, in New York Times:
      So persistent is the onrush of new construction in New York that the first temptation for the architecture buff is to track down the latest things, be they good or bad []
  2. An aggressive assault.

Synonyms

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Translations

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Verb

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onrush (third-person singular simple present onrushes, present participle onrushing, simple past and past participle onrushed)

  1. To rush or flow forward forcefully.
    • 2021 May 29, David Hytner, “Chelsea win Champions League after Kai Havertz stuns Manchester City”, in The Guardian[2]:
      Werner’s run had created the space and Havertz got there before the onrushing Ederson, catching a little break off the goalkeeper before rolling it into the empty net.
  2. To assault aggressively.

Translations

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Anagrams

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