From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
flush
adj 1: of a surface exactly even with an adjoining one, forming the
same plane; "a door flush with the wall"; "the bottom
of the window is flush with the floor" [syn:
{flush(p)}]
2: having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value;
"an affluent banker"; "a speculator flush with cash"; "not
merely rich but loaded"; "moneyed aristocrats"; "wealthy
corporations" [syn: affluent, loaded, moneyed,
wealthy]
n 1: the period of greatest prosperity or productivity [syn:
flower, prime, peak, heyday, bloom, blossom,
efflorescence]
2: a rosy color (especially in the cheeks) taken as a sign of
good health [syn: bloom, blush, rosiness]
3: sudden brief sensation of heat (associated with menopause
and some mental disorders) [syn: hot flash]
4: a poker hand with all 5 cards in the same suit
5: the swift release of a store of affective force; "they got a
great bang out of it"; "what a boot!"; "he got a quick
rush from injecting heroin"; "he does it for kicks" [syn:
bang, boot, charge, rush, thrill, kick]
6: a sudden rapid flow (as of water); "he heard the flush of a
toilet"; "there was a little gush of blood"; "she attacked
him with an outpouring of words" [syn: gush,
outpouring]
7: sudden reddening of the face (as from embarrassment or guilt
or shame or modesty) [syn: blush]
adv 1: squarely or solidly; "hit him flush in the face"
2: in the same plane; "set it flush with the top of the table"
v 1: turn red, as if in embarrassment or shame; "The girl blushed
when a young man whistled as she walked by" [syn:
blush, crimson, redden]
2: flow freely; "The garbage flushed down the river"
3: make level or straight; "level the ground" [syn: level,
even out, even]
4: polish and make shiny; "buff the wooden floors"; "buff my
shoes" [syn: buff, burnish, furbish]
5: rinse, clean, or empty with a liquid; "flush the wound with
antibiotics"; "purge the old gas tank" [syn: scour,
purge]
6: irrigate with water from a sluice; "sluice the earth" [syn:
sluice]
7: cause to flow or flood with or as if with water; "flush the
meadows"
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Flush \Flush\, v. i. (Mining)
(a) To operate a placer mine, where the continuous supply
of water is insufficient, by holding back the water,
and releasing it periodically in a flood.
(b) To fill underground spaces, especially in coal mines,
with material carried by water, which, after drainage,
constitutes a compact mass.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Flush \Flush\, n.
1. A sudden flowing; a rush which fills or overflows, as of
water for cleansing purposes.
[1913 Webster]
In manner of a wave or flush. --Ray.
[1913 Webster]
2. A suffusion of the face with blood, as from fear, shame,
modesty, or intensity of feeling of any kind; a blush; a
glow.
[1913 Webster]
The flush of angered shame. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
3. Any tinge of red color like that produced on the cheeks by
a sudden rush of blood; as, the flush on the side of a
peach; the flush on the clouds at sunset.
[1913 Webster]
4. A sudden flood or rush of feeling; a thrill of excitement.
animation, etc.; as, a flush of joy.
[1913 Webster]
5. A flock of birds suddenly started up or flushed.
[1913 Webster]
6. [From F. or Sp. flux. Cf. Flux.] A hand of cards, all of
the same suit; -- especially significant in poker, where
five cards of the same suit constitute a flush, which
beats a straight but is beaten by a full house or four of
a kind.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Flush \Flush\, v. t.
1. To cause to be full; to flood; to overflow; to overwhelm
with water; as, to flush the meadows; to flood for the
purpose of cleaning; as, to flush a sewer.
[1913 Webster]
2. To cause the blood to rush into (the face); to put to the
blush, or to cause to glow with excitement.
[1913 Webster]
Nor flush with shame the passing virgin's cheek.
--Gay.
[1913 Webster]
Sudden a thought came like a full-blown rose,
Flushing his brow. --Keats.
[1913 Webster]
3. To make suddenly or temporarily red or rosy, as if
suffused with blood.
[1913 Webster]
How faintly flushed. how phantom fair,
Was Monte Rosa, hanging there! --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
4. To excite; to animate; to stir.
[1913 Webster]
Such things as can only feed his pride and flush his
ambition. --South.
[1913 Webster]
5. To cause to start, as a hunter a bird. --Nares.
[1913 Webster]
6. To cause to flow; to draw water from, or pour it over or
through (a pond, meadow, sewer, etc.); to cleanse by means
of a rush of water.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
To flush a joints (Masonry), to fill them in; to point the
level; to make them flush.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Flush \Flush\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Flushed; p. pr. & vb. n.
Flushing.] [Cf. OE. fluschen to fly up, penetrate, F. fluz
a flowing, E. flux, dial. Sw. flossa to blaze, and E. flash;
perh. influenced by blush. [root]84.]
1. To flow and spread suddenly; to rush; as, blood flushes
into the face.
[1913 Webster]
The flushing noise of many waters. --Boyle.
[1913 Webster]
It flushes violently out of the cock. --Mortimer.
[1913 Webster]
2. To become suddenly suffused, as the cheeks; to turn red;
to blush.
[1913 Webster]
3. To snow red; to shine suddenly; to glow.
[1913 Webster]
In her cheek, distemper flushing glowed. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
4. To start up suddenly; to take wing as a bird.
[1913 Webster]
Flushing from one spray unto another. --W. Browne.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Flush \Flush\, adv.
So as to be level or even.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Flush \Flush\, a.
1. Full of vigor; fresh; glowing; bright.
[1913 Webster]
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Affluent; abounding; well furnished or suppled; hence,
liberal; prodigal.
[1913 Webster]
Lord Strut was not very flush in ready. --Arbuthnot.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Arch. & Mech.) Unbroken or even in surface; on a level
with the adjacent surface; forming a continuous surface;
as, a flush panel; a flush joint.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Card Playing) Consisting of cards of one suit.
[1913 Webster]
Flush bolt.
(a) A screw bolt whose head is countersunk, so as to be
flush with a surface.
(b) A sliding bolt let into the face or edge of a door, so
as to be flush therewith.
Flush deck. (Naut.) See under Deck, n., 1.
Flush tank, a water tank which can be emptied rapidly for
flushing drainpipes, etc.
[1913 Webster]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
flush
1. To delete something, usually superfluous, or to abort an
operation.
"Flush" was standard ITS terminology for aborting an output
operation. One spoke of the text that would have been
printed, but was not, as having been flushed. It is
speculated that this term arose from a vivid image of flushing
unwanted characters by hosing down the internal output buffer,
washing the characters away before they could be printed.
2. To force temporarily buffered data to be written to more
permanent memory. E.g. flushing buffered disk I/O to disk, as
with C's standard I/O library "fflush(3)" call. This
sense was in use among BLISS programmers at DEC and on
Honeywell and IBM machines as far back as 1965. Another
example of this usage is flushing a cache on a {context
switch} where modified data stored in the cace which belongs
to one processes must be written out to main memory so that
the cache can be used by another process.
[Jargon File]
From Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) [jargon]:
flush
v.
1. [common] To delete something, usually superfluous, or to abort an
operation. "All that nonsense has been flushed."
2. [Unix/C] To force buffered I/O to disk, as with an fflush(3) call.
This is not an abort or deletion as in sense 1, but a demand for
early completion!
3. To leave at the end of a day's work (as opposed to leaving for a
meal). "I'm going to flush now." "Time to flush."
4. To exclude someone from an activity, or to ignore a person.
`Flush' was standard ITS terminology for aborting an output
operation; one spoke of the text that would have been printed, but
was not, as having been flushed. It is speculated that this term
arose from a vivid image of flushing unwanted characters by hosing
down the internal output buffer, washing the characters away before
they could be printed. The Unix/C usage, on the other hand, was
propagated by the fflush(3) call in C's standard I/O library (though
it is reported to have been in use among BLISS programmers at DEC
and on Honeywell and IBM machines as far back as 1965). Unix/C
hackers found the ITS usage confusing, and vice versa.