Other forms: rushing, rushed, rushes
To rush is to move fast because you are late or because something is wrong. You rush for the last train, rush the children out of the door, rush a burnt hand under the cold tap.
You can rush a person — "don't rush me, I'm still reading" — and you can rush a job, which means doing it so fast you do it badly; that is why rushed is an insult on a piece of work. As a noun it is the hurry itself: in a rush, no rush, the morning rush, rush hour. It is also a sudden surge of feeling or air — a rush of blood to the head, a rush of cold from the open door, an adrenaline rush. And there is a second rush with nothing to do with speed: a tall thin plant from wet ground, woven into rush matting and the seats of old chairs.
1verbrushTo move or act with great speed because there is not enough time.
“We had to rush to catch the last train.”
2verbfasterTo make someone do something faster than they want to.
“Don't rush me — I'm still reading the small print.”
3verbsomewhereTo take someone or something somewhere at speed.
“An ambulance rushed her to hospital.”
4nounhurryA hurry, or a period when everyone needs something at once.
“There's no rush — take as long as you need.”
5nounsuddenA sudden strong flow of feeling, air or liquid.
“He felt a rush of cold air from the open door.”
6nountallA tall grass-like plant of wet ground, used for weaving mats and chair seats.
“The chair seat was woven from rush and had worn thin.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: hurry
The verb rush probably goes back to a word for startling something. Middle English ruschen meant "to rush, startle, make a loud rushing noise", from Old English hrysċan, "to jolt, startle", from Proto-Germanic *hurskijaną, "to startle, drive", built on *hurskaz, "fast, rapid, quick". Behind it all sits the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱers-, "to run, hurry".
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱers- — to run, hurry
Proto-Germanic
*hurskijaną — to startle, drive
Proto-West Germanic
*hurskijan
Old English
hrysċan — to jolt, startle
Middle English
ruschen
English, today
rush
Built from
Perhaps from Middle English ruschen, russchen (“to rush, startle, make a loud rushing noise”), from Old English hrysċan (“to jolt, startle”), from Proto-West Germanic hurskijan, from Proto-Germanic hurskijaną (“to startle, drive”), from hurskaz (“fast, rapid, quick”), from Proto-Indo-European ḱers- (“to run, hurry”). Cognate with Old High German hursken (“to hurry, speed, incite, accelerate”), Old English horsċ (“quick, quick-witted, clever”), Old Frisian rosk, rosch (“quick, rapid, sudden”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA