Word of the Day

Monday, September 15, 2008

suffuse

\suh-FYOOZ\ , transitive verb;

To spread through or over in the manner of fluid or light; to flush.

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Quotes:

She gave me a long slow look, as if she were deciding something, and then she allowed herself to blush, the color suffusing her throat in a delicious mottle of pink and white.

-- T. Coraghessan Boyle, T. C. Boyle Stories

Have you ever felt happiness suffuse all the cells in your body and a smile light up your face?

-- Sarabjit Singh, "Queen of the Hills", India Currents, November 30, 1996

Like an angel or an earthquake, it isn't there and then it is; it doesn't steal over us and suffuse us with a festive spirit like the gradual effects of alcohol or good deeds.

-- Barbara Peters Smith, "Gladness descends on her home", Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 27, 2003

Origin:

Suffuse comes from the past participle of Latin suffundere, "to overspread; to suffuse," from sub-, "under" + fundere, "to pour."