put to the blush

English

Verb

put to the blush (third-person singular simple present puts to the blush, present participle putting to the blush, simple past and past participle put to the blush)

1. (transitive) To cause to blush with shame; to put to shame.
   • 1611, Lording Barry, Ram-Alley: or Merrie-Trickes‎^[1], London: Robert Wilson, act II, scene 1:

     I am glad he is gon, a put me to the blush
     When a did aske me of ritch Somerfields death.

   • 1725, Daniel Defoe, “Every-body’s Business, Is No-body’s Business: or, Private Abuses, Publick Grievances”, in et al.‎^[2], London: T. Warner, page 15:

     I remember I was once put very much to the Blush, being at a Friend’s House, and by him requir’d to salute the Ladies, I kiss’d the Chamber-Jade in to the bargain, for she was as well dress’d as the best.

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, chapter 42, in The Mayor of Casterbridge‎^[3]:

     The tempting prospect of putting to the blush people who stand at the head of affairs—that supreme and piquant enjoyment of those who writhe under the heel of the same—had alone animated them, so far as he could see;

   • 1906, William John Locke, chapter 7, in The Belovéd Vagabond‎^[4], London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, page 91:

     His politeness to Blanquette would have put to the blush any young man at the Bon Marché or the Louvre.

   • 1952, “Confession”, in Roy Campbell, transl., Poems of Baudelaire: A translation of Les Fleurs du mal‎^[5], London: The Harvill Press, page 58:

     Like some misborn, deformed, and monstrous kid
     Who puts his family to the blush,
     Whose presence in a cellar must be hid
     And his existence in a hush!

See also

• spare someone's blushes