bum rush

noun, verb — 3 senses

bum rush

nounalso spelled bum-rush

Etymology Originates from the 1980s, as slang for the stampede of people created by a police raid.

1

Idiomatic A storming into an establishment.

Related terms
bum-rush, bum’s rush

bum-rush

verb

Etymology 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,").

1

Informal To force one's way into; to crash.

2

Informal To forcibly overpower a person.

  • 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]
  • 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
Related terms
bum's rush

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for bum rush and bum-rush.