bum-rush

verb

To force one's way into; to crash.

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Meanings

verbbum-rush (third-person singular simple present bum-rushes, present participle bum-rushing, simple past and past participle bum-rushed)

present singular third person bum-rushes · participle present bum-rushing · participle past bum-rushed · past bum-rushed · alternative bumrush · alternative bum rush · alternative bum's rush

  1. informaltransitiveTo force one's way into; to crash.
  2. informaltransitiveTo forcibly overpower a person.

    It had what they call a safety space[…] He was trying to get into it, but he got bum rushed so fast that he didn't get into that.

    2026 January 3, Donald Trumphttps://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-reveals-venezuelas-maduro-captured-fortress-like-house-he-got-bum-rushed-so-fast
    1 more example

    2015 August 21, KGWhttp://www.kgw.com/story/news/local/2015/08/21/oregon-soldier-takes-down-gunman--french-train/32162823/ That gave them the opportunity to bum-rush [the gunman]

Origin

Usage occurred May 4th, 1939 in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake meaning rapidly rushing towards and crashing against ("... came at this timecoloured place where we live in our paroqial fermament one tide on another, with a bumrush in a hull of a wherry, the twin turbane dhow,").

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Russian вламываться
  • вламываться (vlamyvatʹsja)To force one's way into; to crash
Cite this entry
APA

bum-rush. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bum-rush

MLA

“bum-rush.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bum-rush. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bum-rush,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bum-rush.

Source: bum-rush on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.