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.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

beat the bushes for

“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

"We've got to go out and beat the bushes for meat," cried Clint Anderson.

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

Both men beat the bushes for the radius of a hundred rods or more without, however, bringing to light anything but a few birds.

From The Web of the Golden Spider by Harrison Fisher