gush
Americanverb (used without object)
-
gushes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gushed,
past participle, past
-
gushing
present participle
-
to flow out or issue suddenly, copiously, or forcibly, as a fluid from confinement.
Water gushed from the broken pipe.
-
to express oneself extravagantly or emotionally; talk effusively.
She gushed with pride over her new grandchild.
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to have a sudden, copious flow, as of blood or tears.
verb (used with object)
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gushes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gushed,
past participle, past
-
gushing
present participle
noun
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gushes
plural
-
a sudden, copious outflow of a fluid.
-
the fluid emitted.
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effusive and often insincere language or behavior.
verb
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to pour out or cause to pour out suddenly and profusely, usually with a rushing sound
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to act or utter in an overeffusive, affected, or sentimental manner
noun
-
a sudden copious flow or emission, esp of liquid
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something that flows out or is emitted
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an extravagant and insincere expression of admiration, sentiment, etc
Usage
What does gush mean? To gush is to flow forcefully and rapidly. Water gushes out of a firehose. Gush can also be used as a noun referring to such a flow. Gush also commonly means to talk about a particular thing in an emotional, enthusiastic, unreserved way. When used this way, it is often phrased as gush about or gush over. Example: I’m sorry to keep gushing about my baby cousin, but she’s just so adorable!
Synonym Usage
See flow.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gushsimple
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gushessimple
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have gushedperfect
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has gushedperfect
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am gushingprogressive
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are gushingprogressive
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is gushingprogressive
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have been gushingperfect progressive
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has been gushingperfect progressive
Past
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gushedsimple
-
had gushedperfect
-
was gushingprogressive
-
were gushingprogressive
-
had been gushingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gush
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English; probably of expressive origin; see gust 1, rush 1
Explanation
On hot summer days, city kids will sometimes open a fire hydrant and let the water gush into the street. Things that gush come streaming out. Water can gush out of a hose or a drinking fountain, and you can also call the jet of water itself a gush. A more figurative way to gush is to talk enthusiastically about something — you might gush when you're describing your favorite teacher. Gush comes from the twelfth century English word gosshien, originally "make noises in the stomach," and later "pour out." Gush is an onomatopoeic word — it sounds like what it means.
Vocabulary lists containing gush
Instead of "Said": Words for Upbeat Banter
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Charlotte's Web
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The cast are tight lipped on whether Grogu speaks in the film, but both Pascal and Weaver gush over his qualities.
From BBC ● May 7, 2026
Meanwhile, Bill Guerin, the general manager of the U.S. men’s team, was so impressed that he immediately called his wife back at home to gush about Murphy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
The agent took the opportunity to gush about ICE’s new state-of-the-art semi-automatic tasers and brand-new pepper-ball guns.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026
“I don’t want to gush, but he’s gotten better every year,” Michaels said.
From Salon ● Dec. 28, 2025
He took a deep breath and let it out in a gush.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
On and around the dry lake bed, water gushes from wells into ditches to fields of tomatoes, cotton, almonds, grapes and other crops.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
“I’ve basically modeled my whole look and style after you,” Carpenter gushes when she and Piggy finally meet in the recent special.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2026
Maam Essan, a 23-year-old Parisian, gushes at the sight of Mona Kattan, the sister of beauty mogul Huda Kattan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
In the Sierra Nevada, the snow that blankets the rugged landscape each winter melts and gushes in meadows, streams and rivers, nourishing alpine ecosystems and filling reservoirs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
“Carlos always gushes about his wonderful family. We feel like we know you already.”
From "The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas
They gushed that their back-and-forth with the bot yields a deeper understanding of a topic than a one-and-done search would.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Another guest gushed about something more romantic: Aschenbrenner’s promise to buy his wife a galaxy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Fineman gushed about her “SNL” castmates in the goodbye missive, calling them the best in the biz.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
“Americans are falling in love with Vietnam and its dual communist–capitalist system of government and economics,” some guy in Hanoi could have said after I gushed to him about how much fun I was having.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
The tapestries swirled out, the rushes stood on end, the fire gushed smoke, and Lancelot’s voice embedded in the wind, shouted: “Bon! Bleoberis! Demaris!”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Although specific details about both the Zvernec and Sazan plans remain unclear, gushing descriptions from Ivanka Trump and renderings of the proposed resort posted by Kushner have been circulating for years.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
But Baker couldn’t help gushing about Musk for long, pointing out that after the compute deals with Google and Anthropic, SpaceX went from 100 times trailing revenue to 39.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 12, 2026
Trump, who built a career as a real estate developer, has frequently touted the project, gushing over the sounds of jackhammers and excavation trucks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
This leads, Mr. Hazzard writes, to “the constant gushing of fluids, all of them, into a diaper. It’s death by humiliation, by torment.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
From attic trapdoors, blind robot faces peered down with faucet mouths gushing green chemical.
From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
