v. [f. L. suffūs-, pa. ppl. stem of suffundĕre, f. suf- = SUB- 2, 25 + fundĕre to pour.]
1. trans. To overspread as with a fluid, a color, a gleam of light.
a. of tears, moisture. Chiefly pass.
1590. [see SUFFUSED 1].
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XII. lxxiv. His eies vnclos’d, with teares suffused.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng., Chas. I., x. I. 461. Hamilton long followed him with his eyes, all suffused in tears.
1773–83. Hoole, Orl. Fur., XVIII. 1162. While tears his cheeks suffuse.
1797. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T. (1799), I. 352. His whole frame [was] suffused with a cold dew.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., xiii. II. 115. Every eye was suffused with tears.
b. of light, air, fire, color. Often in fig. context.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 1086. Dark looks succeed; Suffus’d, and glaring with untender fire.
1786. trans. Beckford’s Vathek (1883), 33. To hide the blush of mortification that suffused their foreheads.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, VI. 25. A kindling gleam of hope Suffused the Spirit’s lineaments.
1818. Wordsw., Even. Volunt., ix. 49. Yon hazy ridges … Climbing suffused with sunny air.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 184. The glorious light … suffused with gold and crimson the atmosphere itself.
1877. Black, Green Past., xxxv. 283. The beautiful colour that for a second suffused her blushing face.
1882. Garden, 5 Aug., 119/1. Sepals and flowers white, suffused at base with rosy lilac.
c. transf. and fig.
1813. Coleridge, Night-scene, 43. Eyes suffused with rapture.
1848. W. H. Bartlett, Egypt to Pal., v. (1879), 101. The life and literature of the nation were suffused with these reminiscences.
1867. J. B. Rose, trans. Virg. Æneid, 160. The crowded ranks Of disembodied Shades suffused the banks.
1868. Helps, Realmah, ii. (1876), 10. The most commonplace objects being suffused with beauty.
1876. Holland, Sev. Oaks, xv. 234. The amused expression suffused the lawyer’s face.
2. To pour (a liquid) over a surface. (Also refl.) Chiefly in fig. context.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Roman Hist. (1827), III. VII. 328. Suffusing over the study of philosophy the dye of rhetoric.
1815. Ann. Reg., Chron., 92/2. Water, sugar, &c. from the boiler and pans … suffused thickly upon the trees.
1829. I. Taylor, Enthus., x. 282. The healing flood of Christian truth shall suffuse itself in all directions.
1854. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XV. II. 427. Springs, suffused from higher grounds.
