Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Turning red; reddening.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Growing or becoming red; tending to a red color; blushing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Growing or becoming red; tending to redness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective turning red; reddening

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin rubēscēns, rubēscent-, present participle of rubēscere, to grow red, inchoative of rubēre, to be red; see reudh- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Attested since at least 1730, from Latin rubescens, present participle of rubescere.

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Examples

  • It writhed down her arm, and its five rubescent flower heads thrust out toward the priestess — vibrating, quivering, held in leash only by the light touch of the handmaiden at its very end.

    The Moon Pool 2004

  • The line of tail lights snaked over the hills and into the woods, the whole thing inching along like a rubescent worm.

    The Delicate Storm Blunt, Giles 2003

  • From those gaping jaws a gout of rubescent flame swept across the captives.

    Conan The Magnificent Jordan, Robert 1986

  • The demon's rubescent eyes fixed malevolently on the mage.

    Conan The Victorious Jordan, Robert 1984

  • From those gaping jaws a gout of rubescent flame swept across the captives.

    Conan The Magnificent Jordan, Robert 1984

  • She wasn't a prude but she was a girl who hadn't until now allowed any man the privilege of such an intimacy, which the ruby-shaded lamps intensified, casting a rubescent glow over the turned-back sheets and lace counterpane of the big bed.

    A Girl Possessed Winspear, Violet 1980

  • Dimly through rubescent veils, the others in the hall could glimpse his white, frozen features, fixed in a grimace of torment.

    Conan Of The Isles De Camp, L. Sprague 1968

  • It writhed down her arm, and its five rubescent flower heads thrust out toward the priestess -- vibrating, quivering, held in leash only by the light touch of the handmaiden at its very end.

    The Moon Pool 1919

  • Then he could see the modest bookseller, somewhat clammy in his extremities and lost within his academic robe and hood, nervously fidgeting his mortar-board, haled forward by ushers, and tottering rubescent before the chancellor, provost, president (or whoever it might be) who hands out the diploma.

    The Haunted Bookshop 1918

  • It writhed down her arm, and its five rubescent flower heads thrust out toward the priestess -- vibrating, quivering, held in leash only by the light touch of the handmaiden at its very end.

    The Moon Pool Abraham Merritt 1913

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