push
Definitions
General English
- noun the action of making something move forwards
- verb to make something move away from you or in front of you
General Science
- verb to press something or to move something by pressing on it
Cricket
- noun a defensive batting stroke in which a straight bat is pushed forward to meet the ball with a minimum of backliftCitation ‘When he [Glenn Turner] first appeared his shots were just about limited to a forward and backward defensive push’ (Jim Laker, WCM August 1984)
- verb to hit or attempt to hit the ball when playing a push strokeCitation ‘After nearly four hours Smith’s concentration faltered too: he pushed at a ball from Sarfraz that should have been driven firmly or ignored, and played on’ (Matthew Engel, Guardian 15 March 1984)
- verb to push the ball through (see push through)Citation ‘Warne gave the ball a great tweak and also pushed it at times just to keep the batsmen guessing’ (Vijay Lokapally, Sportstar [Chennai] 30 April 1994)
Electronics
- To add an item to the top of a stack. This contrasts with pop, which is to remove the first item from the top of a stack.
- To send data utilizing push technology.
Military
- noun an act of pushing
- noun a large-scale offensive operation
- verb to use physical force on an object, in order to move it away from one
Slang
- verb to sell illegal drugs, especially when the sale involves coercion
Origin & History of “push”
Push comes ultimately from the same source as English pulsate and pulse – pulsus, the past participle of Latin pellere ‘drive, push, beat’. From it was formed the verb pulsāre ‘push, beat’, which in Old French became poulser, later pousser. Anglo-Norman took this over as *pusser, and passed it on to English as push.
