From Middle English huschen (“to hush”) (as past participle husht (“silent; hushed”) and interjection husht (“quiet!”)). Cognate with Low German huschen, hüssen (“to hush; lull”), German huschen (“to shoo; scurry”), Danish hysse (“to hush”), and maybe Albanian hesht.
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) A silence, especially after some noise.
It is the hush of night. 1816, Lord Byron, “Canto III”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Third, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza LXXXVI:
And there fell a hush upon the gods when they saw that Māna rested, and there was silence on Pegāna save for the drumming of Skarl. 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:
From Middle English huschen (“to hush”) (as past participle husht (“silent; hushed”) and interjection husht (“quiet!”)). Cognate with Low German huschen, hüssen (“to hush; lull”), German huschen (“to shoo; scurry”), Danish hysse (“to hush”), and maybe Albanian hesht.
Meanings
(intransitive) To become quiet.
(transitive) To make quiet.
(transitive) To appease; to allay; to soothe.
And hush’d my deepest grief of all. 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XIX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 32:
VVilt thou then / Huſh my Cares thus, and ſhelter me vvith Love? 1682, Thomas Otway, Venice Preserv’d, or, A Plot Discover’d. A Tragedy. […], London: […] Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 11:
ar أَصْمَتَ (to make quiet) · ru утихоми́ривать (to make quiet) · gl sochar (to become quiet) · pl zamilknąć (to become quiet) · gl poupear (to soothe) · gl cochar (to make quiet) · es callar (to make quiet) · gl trempar (to soothe) · ca apaivagar (to soothe) · hu lecsendesít (to make quiet) · fi hyssytellä (to make quiet) · arz يسكت (to make quiet) · ca callar (to become quiet) · ca assossegar (to soothe) · ru замолча́ть (to become quiet) · gl acamallar (to soothe) · fi hiljetä (to become quiet) · gl apagullar (to soothe) · ro tăcea (to become quiet) · es calmar (to soothe) · fi tyynnytellä (to soothe) · af sjuut (to become quiet) · bcl halo (to become quiet) · sk stíchnuť (to become quiet) · es callarse (to become quiet) · sk utíšiť (to make quiet) · hu elcsitít (to make quiet) · gl amuar (to become quiet) · tr suskunlaşmak (to become quiet) · pl uciszyć (to make quiet) · bg смълчавам се (to become quiet) · sk zamĺknuť (to become quiet) · mi māī (to become quiet) · fi vaieta (to become quiet) · ar صَمَتَ (to become quiet) · sk čušať (to become quiet) · mi pōpō (to soothe) · tr susturmak (to make quiet) · sk zmĺknuť (to become quiet) · pl uciszać (to make quiet) · de still werden (to become quiet) · es acallar (to make quiet) · gl acuchuminar (to soothe) · bg утешавам (to soothe) · fi vaientaa (to make quiet) · bg въдворявам тишина (to make quiet) · ru замолка́ть (to become quiet) · hu megnyugtat (to soothe) · bcl halo (to make quiet) · bg млъквам (to become quiet) · gl amuar (to make quiet) · gl sochar (to make quiet) · gl acalentar (to soothe) · gl calar (to become quiet) · hu elhallgattat (to make quiet) · fi rauhoitella (to soothe) · hu elnémít (to make quiet) · ja 黙る (to become quiet) · es callar (to become quiet) · ru замо́лкнуть (to become quiet) · ru успока́ивать (to make quiet) · arz يسكت (to become quiet) · tr susmak (to become quiet) · gl calar (to make quiet) · hu elhallgat (to become quiet) · ca mutis (to make quiet) · es acallar (to soothe) · ar صَمَّتَ (to make quiet) · hu elcsendesedik (to become quiet) · de zum Schweigen bringen (to make quiet) · hu elnémul (to become quiet) · de verstummen (to become quiet) · gl cochar (to become quiet) · la taceo (to become quiet) · hu elcsendesül (to become quiet) · cmn 安靜 /安静 (to become quiet)
Water which has been used to clear the soil off of some (area of) rock or ore.
[…] the hush from the lead mines on the moors near that place enters the Arkle, and the stream below suffers materially, the fishing being of little good; 1851, Tom Bradley, The Yorkshire Anglers' Guide to the Whole of the Fishing on ..., page 6:
The great cause of the scarcity of fish in this river is without doubt the "hush" coming down from the lead mines in the upper waters. […] 1879, Annual Report of the Inspectors of Salmon Fisheries (England and Wales), page 89
A part of a mine or quarry where ore is to be, or has been, excavated by an artificial flow of water.
After the first hush miners loosened the rock in the floor of the hush with picks and crow bars [...] a torrent of water was sent down which swept and tore the loosened stuff over the grate, trapping much of the ore that was being moved. In this method a hush could be used for over a century and could grow […] 1965, Arthur Raistrick, A History of Lead Mining in the Pennines, page 159:
[…] lead ore occurs abundantly in the upper crust of the earth, and this phrase would have been quite applicable to the early finds of shoad-stones of lead ore in Weardale, to the importance of which the scars of the "hushes" that still furrow the fell-sides bear conclusive evidence. 1917, The Mining Magazine, volume 16, page 19:
[…] water, far down below, roaring and hushing over the rocks, […] 1867, David M. Moir, The Life of Mansie Wauch, Tailor in Dalkeith, page 97:
On the fluir, bluid an punch now hush't leyke a stream, […] 1840, Anderson, Ballads, page 96, quoted in the EDD
(intransitive, transitive) To send forth a rush of water over (some ground) so as to clear off the soil and other materials overlying, and thus uncover or separate out, ore.
[…] worn its Chanel so deep in some Part of its Course as to work upon some mineral Substance, which gives it the Colour of Water hushed from Lead-mines, and is so strong as to tinge the River Derwent […] 1750, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (XLVI), page 364
[He] had promised … that he would have a stop put to the hushing process. 1887 October 28, North Star, quoted in the NED
The earliest method of searching for lead ore was by collecting the water in dams and hushing the surface of the ground where metalliferous veins existed. 1886, William Morley Egglestone, Weardale Names, page 73: