beat the bushes for

Idioms  

1. Look everywhere for something or someone, as in I've been beating the bushes for a substitute but haven't had any luck. This term originally alluded to hunting, when beaters were hired to flush birds out of the brush. [1400s] Also see beat around the bush.

---

Example Sentences

“We beat the bushes for them,” Belichick said.

From Washington Post • Feb. 2, 2018

Roaming hither and yon, they beat the bushes for votes, relying on the most primitive forms of political expression: the fist-pounding stump speech and the handshake.

From New York Times • Sep. 28, 2012

He does not need to go out and beat the bushes for votes.

From Time Magazine Archive

Such is the Kennedy charisma that Bobby has been mobbed wherever he has gone, while Keating has had to beat the bushes for audiences.

From Time Magazine Archive

We beat the bushes for the great, the kings that should come after Agamemnon.

From Behind the Mirrors The Psychology of Disintegration at Washington by Gilbert, Clinton W. (Clinton Wallace)