bush telegraph
Americannoun
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any system of communication in which the natives of a jungle or bush region transmit news rapidly, as by runners, drum codes, or smoke signals.
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Australian.
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any chain of communications by which criminals, originally bushrangers, are warned of police movements.
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Slang. rumor; the grapevine.
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noun
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a means of communication between primitive peoples over large areas, as by drum beats
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a means of spreading rumour, gossip, etc
Etymology
Origin of bush telegraph
First recorded in 1875–80
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I was humbled, too, by the inner world of plants and their eerie capacity to communicate through “the bush telegraph of root systems.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2016
La bola, Cuba’s bush telegraph, transmits news around the island long before it is covered by state media.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 20, 2015
It will be his saves, though, particularly in the opening half, that should reach Fabio Capello, the England manager, on the bush telegraph.
From The Guardian ● May 1, 2010
The bush telegraph crackled that Banda was back, and within half an hour of his arrival at a friend's house in nearby Limbe, cheering blacks appeared outside as if by magic to cheer their messiah.
From Time Magazine Archive
A bush telegraph, you see, is mostly worked about the neighbourhood he was born in.
From Robbery under Arms; a story of life and adventure in the bush and in the Australian goldfields by Boldrewood, Rolf
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
