1887. Payn, Glow Worm Tales, 123. That a fraud had been committed on us was certain, and a fraud of a very clumsy kind . . . he had rushed us as the phrase goes.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiii. I've known cases where a single bushranger was rushed by a couple of determined men. Ibid., xxiii. It's no use trying the rush dodge with them.
1888. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, 137. Peeresses . . . occupied every seat, and even rushed the reporters' gallery.
1889. Illustrated Bits, 13 July, 3. A girl of sixteen who receives calls from admirers, is commonly considered to be rushing the season. She is precocious and the reverse of passée.
1889. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 4 Jan. Ain't that the swine of a snob that rushed me at Battersea?
1890. Nineteenth Century, xxvi. 854. There was a slight boom in the mining market, and a bit of a rush on American rails.
1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads, 'Fuzzy Wuzzy.' A happy day with Fuzzy on the rush.
1892. Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, 96. "Jim always meant business wherever he went," she said confidently, "and we should be sure to hear of that rush if he had taken it up."
18[?] N. A. Review [Century]. Hazing, rushing, secret societies, society imitations and badges . . . are unknown at Oxford and Cambridge.
18[?] Sci. American [Century]. In rushing, as well as in following or heading off . . . the front lines get the most shocks.
1897. Kennard, Girl in Brown Habit, x. She's a rusher, and just the animal to stick her forefeet into a drain like this, especially when she got excited.
1901. D. Telegraph, 9 Nov., 7, 2. At the next lecture the Swami made a dead rush to get those present to join.
7. (old).—The lowest minimum of value: cf. straw, rap, cent, &c. [See quot. 1591.]
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, 2421. And yet yeve ye me nevere The worthe of a risshe.
c. 1440. Generydes [E.E.T.S.], 1. 1680. Of all his payne he wold not sett a rissh.
c. 1540. Doctour Doubble Ale, 279. By them I set not a rysh.
1591. Lyly, Sappho and Phaon, ii. 4. But bee not pinned alwayes on her sleeves; strangers have greene rushes, when daily guests are not worth a rush.
1593. Shakspeare, Com. of Errors, iv. 3. A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin, a nut, a cherry-stone.
1719. Durfey, Pills, iii. 9. But the fool for his labour deserves not a rush, For grafting a Thistle upon a Rose Bush.
1767. Sterne, Tristam Shandy, ix. 17. I would not, my good people! give a rush for your judgment.
Rush-ring. To marry with a
rush-ring, verb. phr. (old).—1.
To marry in jest; and (2) to
feign marriage. See quot. 1776.
1579. Spenser, Shepheards Calender, Nov., 114. Where bene . . . The knotted rush-ringes, and gilt rosemaree.
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, ii. 2, 22. As fit . . . as Tib's rush for Tom's forefinger.
c. 1610. Fletcher, F. Shepherdess, i. 3. Or gather rushes to make many a ring, For thy long finger.
1668. Davenant, Rivals. I'll crown thee with a garland of straw then, And I'll marry thee with a rush-ring.
1684. Durfey, Winchester Wedding [Several New Songs]. And Tommy was so to Katty, And wedded her with a rush-ring. . . . And thus of Fifty fair Maids . . . Scarce Five of the Fifty was left ye, That so did return again.
1776. Brand, Pop. Antiq., ii. 38. A custom . . . appears anciently to have prevailed, both in England and in other countries, of marrying with a rush ring; chiefly practised, however, by designing men, for the purposes of debauching their mistresses, who sometimes were so infatuated as to believe that this mock ceremony was a real marriage.
Rush-buckler, subs. phr. (old).—A
violent bully.
1551. More, Utopia, ii. 4. Take into this number also their servants: I mean all that flock of stout bragging rush-bucklers.
