rushed

1. 1
   adjective

   Done in haste, carried out quickly or hastily.

   The rushed decision led to several costly errors down the line.

   Critics called the film's ending rushed and unconvincing.

   Similarhasty, hurried, rash, precipitate

   Oppositecareful, considered, deliberate, unhurried

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of rush.

   He rushed the injured player to the hospital.

   The crowd rushed toward the stage as the band appeared.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty, as past tense (they rushed the stage) and as past participle (has rushed, was rushed). Because rush can take an object, the participle can be passive: he was rushed to the hospital. That passive can look just like the "very busy" adjective. "The staff were rushed" may mean someone hurried them along or simply that they were short of time, and only context tells.

3. 3
   adjective

   Very busy, with very little time to spare.

   The doctors were too rushed to explain every detail of the procedure.

   He always seems rushed during the holiday season.

   Similarbusy, harried, hurried, pressed, hard-pressed

   Oppositerelaxed, unhurried, leisurely

   Note

   A word about people and their days rather than about the work: you are rushed, feel rushed or seem rushed when time runs short. It grades freely, as in more rushed, most rushed and so rushed. Compare the "done hastily" meaning, which describes the job, not the person doing it. A rushed doctor is short of time, while a rushed essay is work that suffered for it.

4. 4
   adjective

   Abounding in or covered with rushes, the grasslike plants of marshy ground.

   Years of poor drainage had left the lower pasture heavily rushed and almost useless for grazing.

   The edge of the bog is densely rushed, and snipe nest among the thick clumps.

   Note

   Here the word comes from the plant, not the hurry. Ground that is rushed has rushes growing on it, and speed has nothing to do with it. It is a word of farming and land improvement: the Bath and West and Southern Counties Society's Journal of 1937 describes land "once densely rushed" being brought to a state "practically free from rushes." Densely and heavily are its natural partners.

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