SUFFUSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does suffuse mean? 

• SUFFUSE (verb)
  The verb SUFFUSE has 2 senses:

1. cause to spread or flush or flood through, over, or across

2. to become overspread as with a fluid, a colour, a gleam of light

  Familiarity information: SUFFUSE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUFFUSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they suffuse    ... he / she / it suffuses   
Past simple: suffused   
Past participle: suffused   
-ing form: suffusing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to spread or flush or flood through, over, or across

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

perfuse; suffuse

Context example:

The sky was suffused with a warm pink color

Hypernyms (to "suffuse" is one way to...):

flush (cause to flow or flood with or as if with water)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence examples:

They suffuse the cloth with water and alcohol
Water and alcohol suffuse the cloth

Derivation:

suffusion (the process of permeating or infusing something with a substance)

suffusive (spreading through)

Sense 2

Meaning:

To become overspread as with a fluid, a colour, a gleam of light

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

His whole frame suffused with a cold dew

Hypernyms (to "suffuse" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

suffusion (the process of permeating or infusing something with a substance)

suffusive (spreading through)

 Context examples 

The hall was not dark, nor yet was it lit, only by the high-hung bronze lamp; a warm glow suffused both it and the lower steps of the oak staircase.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Each time he murmured it, her face shimmered before him, suffusing the foul wall with a golden radiance.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Messner regarded her in a way that was almost paternal, what of the profundity of pity and patience with which he contrived to suffuse it.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A soft light suffused his face and his eyes glistened, as though somewhere in the deeps of his being his ancestors had quickened and stirred with dim memories of tips received in former lives.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The astronomy team captured data from these two galaxies as they were during a period of cosmic history known as the Epoch of Reionization, when most of intergalactic space was suffused with an obscuring fog of cold hydrogen gas.

(Massive primordial galaxies found in ‘halo’ of dark matter, National Science Foundation)

He was still in the strait-waistcoat and in the padded room, but the suffused look had gone from his face, and his eyes had something of their old pleading—I might almost say, "cringing"—softness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A group of more interest appeared near the hearth, sitting still amidst the rosy peace and warmth suffusing it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

What of her anger and pent feelings, her lungs were irritated into the dry, hacking cough, and with blood-suffused face and one hand clenched against her chest, she waited for the paroxysm to pass.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It entered into them, dreamy and languorous, weakening the fibres of resolution, suffusing the face of morality, or of judgment, with haze and purple mist. Martin felt tender and melting, and from time to time warm glows passed over him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)