at first blush

Idioms  

1. Also,. When first seen. For example, At first blush we thought it was an elegant restaurant, but it soon became obvious that it was hardly the place for a special dinner, or At first glance the contract looked just fine. All three phrases date from the 1300s. The noun blush is used with the obsolete meaning “glimpse” or “momentary view” and in this idiom has nothing to do with showing embarrassment. Also see love at first sight.

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Example Sentences

This may seem like a paradox at first blush.

From Salon • Apr. 8, 2026

I think I didn’t even quite understand what I was reading — I’m sure at first blush I thought it was romantic and wild, just like my all-consuming teenage crushes at the time.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

Memories get classified in ways that seem at first blush straightforward.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 17, 2025

The whole idea of a tourist attraction built as a guileless ode to love, and shrine to a Slovak poem, may strike you, at first blush, as defying both rhyme and reason.

From New York Times • Feb. 12, 2024

Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Related Words

• evidently
• officially
• seemingly
• supposedly