onrush

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɒnˌɹʌʃ/

Noun

onrush (plural onrushes)

1. A forceful rush or flow forward.
   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 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, Things Fall Apart, London: William Heinemann, Chapter 22,

     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, Paul Goldberger, “A Baker’s Dozen of New York City’s Urban Masterpieces,” New York Times, 31 July, 1987,

     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

• onslaught

Verb

onrush (onrushes, present participle onrushing; past and past participle onrushed)

1. To rush or flow forward forcefully.
2. To assault aggressively.

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