put to the blush

put to the blush

1. (transitive) To cause to blush with shame; to put to shame.
   • 1611, Lording Barry, Ram-Alley: or Merrie-Trickes, London: Robert Wilson, Act II, Scene 1,

     I am glad he is gon, a put me to the blush

     When a did aske me of ritch Somerfields death.

   • 1725, Daniel Defoe, Every-body’s Business, Is No-body’s Business: or, Private Abuses, Publick Grievances, London: T. Warner et al., p. 15,

     I remember I was once put very much to the Blush, being at a Friend’s House, and by him requir’d to salute the Ladies, I kiss’d the Chamber-Jade in to the bargain, for she was as well dress’d as the best.

   • 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Chapter 42,

     The tempting prospect of putting to the blush people who stand at the head of affairs—that supreme and piquant enjoyment of those who writhe under the heel of the same—had alone animated them, so far as he could see;

   • 1906, William John Locke, The Belovéd Vagabond, London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, Chapter 7, p. 91,

     His politeness to Blanquette would have put to the blush any young man at the Bon Marché or the Louvre.

   • 1952, Roy Campbell (translator), “Confession” in Poems of Baudelaire: A translation of Les Fleurs du mal, London: The Harvill Press, p. 58,

     Like some misborn, deformed, and monstrous kid

     Who puts his family to the blush,

     Whose presence in a cellar must be hid

     And his existence in a hush!

• spare someone's blushes