Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US campus) describing objects, people or activities that are to do with paying court to a student with the hope of having them join a fraternity, e.g. rush party.

1899		A.H. Quinn Pennsylvania Stories 60: It was not long before Theta Chi gave him a bid to a rush smoker, which he [...] unceremoniously declined .
1900		New ulm Rev. (MN) 8 Aug. 1: A fashionable gathering of notable young people took possession of the house [...] My better half says it was a ‘rush party’.
1906		Salt Lake Tribune (UT) 22 Oct. 7/2: The Theta U club held aninformal rush party at the university Thursday afternoon.
1916		Wash. Times (DC) 24 Sept. 16/2: Kappa Alpha fraternity [...] will hold its first ‘Rush Smoker’ at its chapter house [...] next Friday.
1919		Logan Repub. (UT) 27 Sept. 8/6: The Sigma Beta delta Sorority will entertain this evening at a rush party at [etc.].
1921		Logan Repub. (UT) 222 Oct. 4/3: On last Friday night the sorosis held their first rush party ath the Hotel Eccles.
1931		K.C. Times 24 Sept. n.p.: Aunt Phoebe Tilden read where so many colleges are having rush parties [DA].
1944		Greeley Denver Trib. 24 Sept. 3/5: Formal rush week for all sororities on the campus will be Oct. 1 to Oct. 6 [DA].
1950		Themis of Zeta Tau Alpha 48:4 162: Lee Ahma Dillon, from Louisville, Kentucky, was elected assistant rush chairman.
1957		(con. WWII) ‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 23: During Rush Week he got a job washing dishes in a fraternity house.
1964		H. Katz ‘What Is College Slang?’ AS XXXIX:3 193: The social affairs that are a major concern for most students, such as [...] pledge and rush weeks.
1970		Guardian 23 Apr. 11/4: What is called the Rush Programme. Girls who want to be ‘rushed’, i.e. who want to join a sorority, put their names down for sororities (the screening process) and ‘rush’ to about 30 or 40 parties .
1974		Arrow of Pi Beta Phi 90:4 85: The second meeting she was elected assistant rush chairman and the following year, was elected head rush chairman.