lush1
/lʌʃ
/adjective
1(Of vegetation, especially grass) growing luxuriantly: lush greenery and cultivated fields...
- But the grass was too lush to burn of its own accord.
- Creatures and beings of every nature and species come to live in that lush and green country.
- The forsaken lands had been her home for so long, she had forgotten how lush and green it was.
Synonyms
luxuriant, rich, abundant, superabundant, profuse, exuberant, riotous, prolific, teeming, flourishing, thriving, vigorous;
dense, thick, rank, rampant, overgrown, jungle-like;
verdant, green
informal jungly
1.1Very rich and providing great sensory pleasure: lush orchestrations...
- A combination of lush colours and fine detail make for a memorable set of images.
- Architecture history buffs used to spend hours inexpertly photographing lush colour pictures from coffee table books.
- Small digital prints with religious images, words and textual extracts rendered in lush textures and rich hues address a broad range of clearly spelt out themes.
Synonyms
luxurious, luxury, deluxe, sumptuous, grand, palatial, opulent, lavish, elaborate, extravagant, fancy
informal plush, ritzy, classy, posh, swanky
British informal swish
North American informal swank
2British informal Sexually attractive.‘You are the most beautiful woman in the world,’ he said huskily as his eyes traveled up and down her lush body....
- This woman was all curves and surprises, and I immediately began imagining the secrets that lush body probably cradled.
- I'd had my suspicions when I'd seen the man looking over the girl's lush body from time to time during the day.
2.1Very good or impressive: I had some really lush pressies
Derivatives
lushly
- But when the guns have fallen silent, evil in its many guises - some of them lushly beguiling - will still prowl among us.
- The album is a lushly produced, 11-song disc that captures the group's British-influenced pop with loving attention.
- Much of the action is lushly set in Southeast Asia, where the pair are captured and raised separately until, after a series of coincidences, they face each other in an arena fight.
lushness
/ noun ...- Those small moments of relative lushness are magnified, become powerful and touching, in their drab context.
- There is lushness and grandeur to the Moorish castles, a true handcrafted fishing village look to the Viking enclave.
- In soft muted shades of green and white or rich tones of hot and soft shades of green and pink, caladiums deliver an unbeatable luxuriance of lushness and tropical color.
Origin
Late Middle English: perhaps an alteration of obsolete lash 'soft, lax', from Old French lasche 'lax', by association with luscious.
Rhymes
lush2
/lʌʃ/informal
noun
A heavy drinker, especially a habitual one: her husband degenerated into a lush who played the drums alone for comfort...
- Besides cleaning up barf, breaking up fights and propping up staggering patrons, owners and waiters can get sued if overly-lubricated lushes kill or injure someone on their drive home.
- Attached to the desk of animation director Kim Jun-bok is a hand-drawn picture of a six pack of Duff Beer, the preferred brand of Springfield's ludicrous lushes.
- It may simply be that you are the biggest lushes in the party, but the rule of villa holidays is: ‘Do not do anything that might incur the wrath of one or more of the women.’
verb [with object] dated
Make (someone) drunk: Mr Hobart got so lushed up he was spilling drinks down his shirt...
- Instead of spending the day lushing it up before their departure for Edinburgh, the Boks spent their last day in Marseilles hard at work.
- He calls everybody ‘sham’ and he now refers to drinking as ‘lushing’.
- Three shuttle buses will scuttle those too lushed to sashay thru the city on their way toward this exclusive after party.
Origin
Late 18th century: perhaps a humorous use of lush1.