Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. (rfdef the sense used in push-up bra and push-up sleeve, possibly other usages topic=clothing English) alt. (rfdef the sense used in push-up bra and push-up sleeve, possibly other usages topic=clothing English) n. An exercise done to improve upper body strength, performed by resting on one's toes and hands and pushing one's weight off the floor.
Wikipedia
A push-up (or press-up) is a common calisthenics exercise performed in a prone position by raising and lowering the body using the arms. Push-ups exercise the pectoral muscles, triceps, and anterior deltoids, with ancillary benefits to the rest of the deltoids, serratus anterior, coracobrachialis and the midsection as a whole. Push-ups are a basic exercise used in civilian athletic training or physical education and commonly in military physical training. They are also a common form of punishment used in the military, school sport, or in some martial arts disciplines.
In the past this movement was called a floor dip.
Usage examples of "push-up".
If you are a new exerciser, you can modify push-ups by putting your knees on the floor instead of just your feet while you do the exercise.
She had apparently donned an Early American push-up bra because her perky little breasts were forced together like two pattypan squash.
The bra was push-up enough that my already nice chest looked positively obscene, but when I ran my hand over the area where I should have felt the mike, all I could feel was the underwire and material.
Lying on the table he was too tall to maintain the kiss and keep our lower bodies pressed together, so he raised himself up on his arms like a push-up, keeping his body pressed into mine.
He wound up in the push-up position, his left arm bracing him, his ankles smarting like the dickens from the manacles above his feet.
As a boy in New Jersey, he made himself strong from chin-ups, push-ups and maniacal repetitions with free weights he constructed from cinder blocks and mop or broom handles.
Jean-Baptiste can do push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks whenever he pleases inside his sixty-four-square-foot cell.
It had already done push-ups, a one-legged deep-knee bend, and a cartwheel—.
Later, just before the hallway widened into a major meeting room, Richard stood in the doorway of another chamber and watched with fascination as a pair of leggies did what appeared to be push-ups on the top of a square table.
The muscle building hadn't bothered him much, except for push-ups, which had hurt his hand.
Before, he'd been able to do a hundred push-ups and sit-ups without even breathing hard— He went still, waiting for the half memory to become full-blown, waiting for the mental door to open, but nothing happened.
At first she’d been able to do only stretching exercises, but she’d pushed herself hard, jogging in place even when she had to hold on to the marble vanity to keep her balance, doing push-ups and sit-ups and ab crunches.
Carrying tennis rackets and a hopper of balls, he walked first to the track, where he ran six miles and did push-ups, sit-ups, and crunches, to get his fix of endorphin.
Then, feeling the haze closing in around him, he slumps painfully to his knees and takes up a push-up position.