different between onslaught vs onrush

English

Etymology

From anslaight (compare Dutch aanslag and German Anschlag), equivalent to on- +? slaught.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??nsl??t/

Noun

onslaught (plural onslaughts)

1. A fierce attack.

   Synonym: onrush

2. (by extension) A large number of people or things resembling an attack.

Translations

See also

• slew

English

Etymology

From on- +? rush. Compare Middle English onresen (“to rush upon; attack”), from Old English onr?san (“to rush, rush on”); Old English onr?s (“an onrush, assault, attack”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n????/

Noun

onrush (plural onrushes)

1. A forceful rush or flow forward.
   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, New York: C.S. Francis & Co., 1857, First Book, pp. 32-33,^[1]

     The love within us and the love without

     Are mixed, confounded; if we are loved or love,

     We scarce distinguish. So, with other power.

     Being acted on and acting seem the same:

     In that first onrush of life’s chariot-wheels,

     We know not if the forests move or we.

   • 1958, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, London: William Heinemann, Chapter 22,

     For a brief moment the onrush of the egwugwu [masked men representing ancestral spirits] was checked by the unexpected composure of the two men. But it was only a momentary check, like the tense silence between blasts of thunder. The second onrush was greater than the first. It swallowed up the two men.

   • 1987, Paul Goldberger, “A Baker’s Dozen of New York City’s Urban Masterpieces,” New York Times, 31 July, 1987,^[2]

     So persistent is the onrush of new construction in New York that the first temptation for the architecture buff is to track down the latest things, be they good or bad […]

2. An aggressive assault.

Synonyms

• onslaught

Translations

Verb

onrush (third-person singular simple present onrushes, present participle onrushing, simple past and past participle onrushed)

1. To rush or flow forward forcefully.
2. To assault aggressively.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hurons