noun
-
a person who lives in the bush
-
an unsophisticated uncouth person
-
a member of a bush fire brigade
adjective
-
covered or overgrown with bushes
-
thick and shaggy
bushy eyebrows
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bushy
First recorded in 1350–1400, bushy is from the Middle English word busshi. See bush 1, -y 1
Explanation
Bushy things have the rounded shape and thick texture of a bush. You could describe your grandfather as having thick gray hair and bushy black eyebrows. You can use the adjective bushy to describe all kinds of things — you might wake up with your curly hair looking quite bushy, or adopt a particularly bushy old cat from the animal shelter. Shrubs are usually bushy, of course, while other plants may grow tall and spindly or spread in a squat and bushy shape. In the 14th century, bushy meant "overgrown with bushes."
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.
"Here we have two hominin species that are together. And human evolution is not linear, it's a bushy tree, there are life forms that go extinct."
From Science Daily • May 16, 2026
His statement on Monday also highlighted that the orphanage was "operating illegally" in a "bushy environment" without the knowledge of relevant authorities.
From BBC • Apr. 27, 2026
Bellowing "Silence, everyone!" to terrified parliamentarians, the man with a bushy moustache and shiny tricorn quickly caught the public's attention in an image engraved on the nation's collective memory.
From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026
With his face all but covered in a bushy, gray-flecked beard, his Gogo makes a milder impression than Mr. Winter’s Didi.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 29, 2025
Seeing him with short hair, and without that big droopy mustache and bushy gray beard, I was surprised all over again.
From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns
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.
