lush
1 Americanadjective
-
lusher,
comparative
-
lushest
superlative
adjective
-
(of vegetation) abounding in lavish growth
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(esp of fruits) succulent and fleshy
-
luxurious, elaborate, or opulent
noun
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a heavy drinker, esp an alcoholic
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alcoholic drink
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of lush1
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English lusch “slack”; of disputed origin; perhaps cognate with Old English lysu “bad,” lēas “lax,” Middle Low German lasch “slack,” Old Norse lǫskr “weak,” Gothic lasiws “weak”; alternatively, perhaps from Old French lasche “cowardly, loose,” adjective derivative of laschier “to loosen,” from Late Latin laxicāre, derivative of laxāre; see relax ( def. )
Origin of lush2
First recorded in 1780–90; perhaps facetious application of lush 1
Explanation
Lush describes something growing in abundance, like the lush green grass that covers the lawn in the spring. Lush usually describes thick healthy plant growth, like the jungles of the rainforest that were so lush you couldn't walk through without chopping down branches. (Then it wasn't so lush anymore...oops!) Lush also means "plush" or even "extravagant" — like a thick shag carpet, music with lots of layers, or a bedroom wallpapered in velvet. Plants full of juice are lush, which is perhaps why a person who drinks too much alcohol is called a lush.
Vocabulary lists containing lush
The Vernal Vocabulary of Spring
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The Things They Carried
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Fallen Angels
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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 property includes 300 feet of frontage and lush landscaping.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
And for the many interstitial scenes in the woods, Franklin Canyon and its lush forest stood in.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
Totoki, 62, grew up in Yamaguchi, a prefecture on the westernmost tip of Japan’s main island famous for lush forests and noodles fried on hot tiles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
My first reaction to the trailer for “Children of Blood and Bone,” Paramount’s lush adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling 2018 young adult novel, was that I buzzed with excitement.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
The last overly watered lush golf course gives way to rock and scrub and desert brush.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
I suspect Nick will finally come out of the closet, and those East Egg lushes will reappear in the 1420s, the 1720s and space.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2020
There's a late-night grilled cheese place just a few blocks down the street from my apartment up here in Canada, one frequented by the local students and lushes on weekend evenings.
From The Verge ● Apr. 8, 2016
If we ever launch a space capsule documenting the drinking traditions of Earth for the benefit of extraterrestrial lushes, we should choose this one to represent the bloody mary.
From Slate ● Dec. 31, 2014
Titans is a retread, clogged with louche lushes in tuxes and gowns, its old-money family saga as tired as the Williams bloodline.
From Time Magazine Archive
A man on the road who "lushes" and fingers chips does not last long.
From Tales of the Road by Charles N. (Charles Newman) Crewdson
Darlings of New York’s late-1970s music scene, David Byrne and his bandmates started as a defiantly simple act and gradually took on a lusher sound.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
This much lusher treatment follows the trend of celebrities and public figures taking their messages straight to the public, using the language of social media rather than conventional news or an interview.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2024
Muddier hues give way to lusher colors as they go deeper into the abandoned streets of Boston.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2023
That has left parts of the state looking lusher than they normally do in June, he said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
The vegetation beneath the plane quickly became thicker, lusher, higher, more aggressive.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Robin Pecknold’s exquisite lockdown tunes pining for nature on 2020’s “Shore” should sound right at home in one of the Seattle area’s lushest venues — if you can afford it.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2022
Golda Schultz’s soprano isn’t the lushest or largest, but as the Countess she delivered a poised, silky “Porgi amor.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2022
But her solo material has tended towards Americana, and On the Line is her lushest, most melodic record to date.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2019
We had a picnic on a highway median in California one time—it seemed like a park to us—and it was the lushest grass I had ever seen.
From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2017
He could hop onto it and trek right on back to the RV, which, relative to his present surroundings, is the world’s lushest palace full of what Dad would call “first-world luxuries.”
From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone
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.
