Word of the Day Archive
Monday September 15, 2008
suffuse \suh-FYOOZ\ , transitive verb:
To spread through or over in the manner of fluid or light; to flush.
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
Suffuse comes from the past participle of Latin suffundere, "to overspread; to suffuse," from sub-, "under" + fundere, "to pour."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for suffuse
