bush-league

[boo sh-leeg]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bush-league ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

inferior or amateurish; mediocre: a bush-league theatrical performance.

Origin of bush-league

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

bush league

noun Baseball.

minor league.

Origin of bush league

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

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

Examples from the Web for bush-league

Contemporary Examples of bush-league

Neither is it some bush-league Johnny-come-lately gathering with C-list speakers and a shoe-string budget.
CPAC: Come for the Crazy, Stay for the Party
Michelle Cottle
March 7, 2014

Historical Examples of bush-league

“Al” nodded knowingly, and the whole thing was a pantomime, a wordless play, that made Sumurun look like a bush-league production.
Pitching in a Pinch
Christy Mathewson

Word Origin and History for bush-league

bush league

adj.

"mean, petty, unprofessional," 1906, from baseball slang for the small-town baseball clubs below the minor league where talent was developed (by 1903), from bush (n.) in the slang sense of "rural, provincial," which originally was not a value judgment.