noun
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a person who lives in the bush
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an unsophisticated uncouth person
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a member of a bush fire brigade
adjective
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covered or overgrown with bushes
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thick and shaggy
bushy eyebrows
Other Word Forms
Derived 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."
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.