Dictionary.com
definitions

RELATED CONTENT

Jefe, White Elephant, And Other Trending Words This Week
Read more in this article about some frequently asked questions and fun facts related to our definitions.
READ MORE
By the Book: 7 Literary Tributes in Popular Music
Do you ever feel so inspired by a good book that you want to sing? Many bands and recording artists have acted on that impulse by working elements of their favorite novels, short stories, or poems into their musical repertoires. Here are a few of our favorite salutes to literature in popular music. The Doors More than an homage to architecture, the band name The …
READ MORE

RELATED WORDS

shrubbery, plant, hinterland, scrub, wilderness, jungle, vine, backwoods, outback, hedge, forest, bramble, thicket, brush, creeper, briar, scrubland, chaparral, backcountry, boscage

Idioms

    beat around/about the bush, to avoid coming to the point; delay in approaching a subject directly: Stop beating around the bush and tell me what you want.
    beat the bushes, to scout or search for persons or things far and wide: beating the bushes for engineers.
    go bush, Australian.
    1. to flee or escape into the bush.
    2. Slang.to become wild.

Origin of bush

1
before 1000; Middle English busshe, Old English busc (in place-names); cognate with Dutch bos wood, German Busch, Old Norse buskr bush
Related formsbush·less, adjectivebush·like, adjective

bush

2
[boo sh]

noun

a lining of metal or the like set into an orifice to guard against wearing by friction, erosion, etc.
bushing(def 2).

verb (used with object)

to furnish with a bush; line with metal.

Origin of bush

2
1560–70; < Middle Dutch bussche; see box1

Bush

[boo sh]

noun

BarbaraBarbara Pierce, born 1925, U.S. First Lady 1989–93 (wife of George H. W. Bush).
George (Herbert Walker),born 1924, U.S. politician: vice president 1981–89; 41st president of the U.S. 1989–93.
his sonGeorge W(alker)Dubya, born 1946, U.S. businessman and politician: governor of Texas 1994–2001; 43rd president of the U.S. 2001–09.
Van·ne·var [vuh-nee-vahr, -ver] /vəˈni vɑr, -vər/, 1890–1974, U.S. electrical engineer: education and research administrator.

bush.

bushel; bushels.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bush

Contemporary Examples of bush

Historical Examples of bush

  • There they stood, one bush after another: it looked like a great garden.

    Rico and Wiseli

    Johanna Spyri

  • "That is all," said at last the mere Gabet, as she hung the last napkins on a bush.

    The Dream

    Emile Zola

  • I am a second Moses and you are going to be my burning bush.

    Her Father's Daughter

    Gene Stratton-Porter

  • I thought I had a glimpse of something behind that thick bush.

    The Gorgon's Head

    Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • She danced around it, she repeated constantly: "This bush is like me; it is like me!"

    The Dream

    Emile Zola

British Dictionary definitions for bush

bush

1

noun

a dense woody plant, smaller than a tree, with many branches arising from the lower part of the stem; shrub
a dense cluster of such shrubs; thicket
something resembling a bush, esp in densitya bush of hair
  1. the bushan uncultivated or sparsely settled area, esp in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, or Canada: usually covered with trees or shrubs, varying from open shrubby country to dense rainforest
  2. (as modifier)bush flies
Canadian an area of land on a farm on which timber is grown and cutAlso called: bush lot, woodlot
a forested area; woodland
the bush informal the countryside, as opposed to the cityout in the bush
a fox's tail; brush
obsolete
  1. a bunch of ivy hung as a vintner's sign in front of a tavern
  2. any tavern sign
beat about the bush to avoid the point at issue; prevaricate

adjective

Australian and NZ informal rough-and-ready
Western African informal ignorant or stupid, esp as considered typical of unwesternized rustic life
US and Canadian informal unprofessional, unpolished, or second-rate
go bush informal, Australian and NZ
  1. to abandon city amenities and live rough
  2. to run wild

verb

(intr) to grow thick and bushy
(tr) to cover, decorate, support, etc, with bushes
bush it (tr) Australian to camp out in the bush

Word Origin for bush

C13: of Germanic origin; compare Old Norse buski, Old High German busc, Middle Dutch bosch; related to Old French bosc wood, Italian bosco

bush

2

noun

Also called (esp US and Canadian): bushing a thin metal sleeve or tubular lining serving as a bearing or guide

verb

to fit a bush to (a casing, bearing, etc)

Word Origin for bush

C15: from Middle Dutch busse box, bush; related to German Büchse tin, Swedish hjulbōssa wheel-box, Late Latin buxis box 1

Bush

noun

George . born 1924, US Republican politician; vice president of the US (1981–89): 41st president of the US (1989–93)
his son, George W (alker). born 1946, US Republican politician; 43rd president of the US (2001–09)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bush
n.

"many-stemmed woody plant," Old English bysc, from West Germanic *busk "bush, thicket" (cf. Old Saxon and Old High German busc, Dutch bosch, bos, German Busch). Influenced by or combined with cognate words from Scandinavian (cf. Old Norse buskr, Danish busk, but this might be from West Germanic) and Old French (busche "firewood," apparently of Frankish origin), and also perhaps Anglo-Latin bosca "firewood," from Medieval Latin busca (whence Italian bosco, Spanish bosque, French bois), which apparently also was borrowed from West Germanic; cf. Boise.

In British American colonies, applied from 1650s to the uncleared districts, hence "country," as opposed to town (1780); probably originally from Dutch bosch in the same sense, because it seems to appear first in English in former Dutch colonies. Meaning "pubic hair" (especially of a woman) is from 1745. To beat the bushes (mid-15c.) is a way to rouse birds so that they fly into the net which others are holding, which originally was the same thing as beating around the bush (see beat (v.)).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with bush

bush

see beat around the bush; beat the bushes for; bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.