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

“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

Colleges that cannot afford to beat the bushes for hordes of burly ballplayers can hold their own if they can sign up a small squad of good men.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was the kind of week when city editors beat the bushes for crime stories�and find them.

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 Fisher, Harrison