bush Hear it!

bush¹ Definition

bush (bo̵os̸h)

noun

  1. a woody plant having many stems branching out low instead of one main stem or trunk; shrub
  2. a thicket of shrubs
  3. anything resembling a bush; esp.,
    1. a thickly furred tail
    2. Slang a beard
  4. Etymology: < Colonial Du bosch, bush

    shrubby woodland or uncleared country, esp. wild or unsettled frontier country: usually with the
    1. a branch of ivy as a symbol for wine, formerly used on tavern signboards
    2. Obsolete a tavern

Etymology: ME < OE busc (in place names) < WGmc *busk-; ME busk, bosk < ML boscus < Frank busk, of same WGmc orig.

intransitive verb

to grow thickly or spread out like a bush

transitive verb

to decorate, cover, or surround with bushes

adjective

Etymology: see bush league

Slang unprofessional, cheap, petty, etc.

bush¹ Idioms

beat around the bush

to talk around a subject without getting to the point

the bushes

Slang rural or small-town districts

bush² Definition

bush (bo̵os̸h)

noun

bushing

Etymology: MDu busse, box < ML buxis: see box

transitive verb

to fit with a bushing

Bush Definition

Bush (bo̵os̸h)

  1. Bush, George (Herbert Walker) 1924-; 41st president of the U.S. (1989-93)

  2. Bush, George W(alker) 1946-; 43d president of the U.S. (2001-): son of George

  3. bo̵os̸h

    Bush, Vannevar (və nēvär) 1890-1974; U.S. electrical engineer & administrator

bush Synonyms

bush

n.

  1. A woody plant

    shrub, bramble, thicket, hedge, shrubbery; see also hedge, plant.

  2. A wild region

    hinterland, backcountry, backwoods; see country 1, forest.

beat around the bush

speak indirectly, speak evasively, avoid the subject, avoid the issue, be deceptive; see also evade 1.

bush Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • overgrow: He agreed and two weeks ago discovered the joys of speeding humps, raised slabs, potholes and overgrown bushes.
  • overhang: Time fished roach dead bait close to overhanging bushes.
  • prune: June or July is the best time to prune raspberry bushes.
  • trim: This kind of damage often comes from parking your car into undergrowth, be sure to trim back bushes from your driveway.

Adjective modifier

  • thorny: Running she tore her dress on a thorny bush revealing all her beauty.
  • mulberry: Japanese tissue, a thin yet extremely strong paper made from mulberry bushes, is used to repair brittle or damaged documents.
  • prickly: Plant wildlife-friendly vegetation, such as prickly bushes and thick climbers in the garden to provide secure cover for birds.
  • flowering: Evidence suggested that the murderer hid among flowering bushes in front of the Simpson home waiting for the victim.
  • scrubby: Scrubby oak bushes, typical of the Balkans, could be found on the slopes above the river valley.
  • lilac: On a lilac bush, the flowers appear in spikes.

Modifies a noun

  • tucker: Mom is holding some freshly hunted ' bush tucker ' lizards ( Aboriginal food ).
  • telegraph: The next morning we went in search of giraffe, and soon found one via the bush telegraph.
  • warbler: Picked SL bush warbler foraging the edge of the pond.
  • cricket: A note describing how armored bush crickets attack nestling red-billed quelea.

Noun used with modifier

  • gorse: It turned right with gorse bushes in the hedge giving extra color.
  • thorn: This involved tying the boat to a thorn bush!
  • gooseberry: It is clearly separate from the gooseberry bush it is growing out of.
  • holly: Or, how about the sound of a holly bush scraping past the players jacket.
  • hawthorn: Conventional harrows were ineffective on the rough terrain but harnessing Doug Joiner's horses to drag a severed hawthorn bush worked.
  • bramble: Runs ( center ) can be seen emerging from bramble bushes.
Bush Quotes

   Mitterrand has100 lovers.One has AIDS, but he doesn't know which one.Bush has100 bodyguards.One is a terrorist, but he doesn't know which one.Gorbachev has100 economic advisers.One issmart, but he doesn't know which one.

—Gorbachev, Mikhail Sergeyevich

How Bush and his junta succeeded in deflecting America's anger from Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein is one of the great public relations conjuring tricks in history.

—Le Carre¤  ,John pseudonym of  David John Moore Cornwell

President Bush†seems to think that the ship [of state] will be saved by imperceptible undercurrents, directed by the invisible hand of some cyclical economic god, that will gradually move the ship so that at the last moment it will miraculously glide past the rocks to safer shores.

—Cuomo, Mario Matthew

At dawn prayers today on March 20 2003 (17 Muharram 1424), the criminal, reckless little Bush and his aides committed this crime that he was threatening to commit against Iraq and humanity.

—Hussein, Saddam

The devil Bush and his treacherous gang, with criminal Zionism, havebegunthegreat showdown, themotherof all battles between good and evil.

—Hussein, Saddam

We live in a time when we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president, a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. We are against this war, Mr Bush. Shame on you, Mr Bush. Shame on you.

—Moore, Michael

bush Quotes

Give to me the life I love, Let the lave go by me, Give the jolly heaven above And the byway nigh me. Bed in the bush with the stars to see, Bread I dip in the riverö There's the life for a man like me, There's the life for ever.

—Stevenson, Robert Louis

   In the licorice fields at Pontefract My love and I did meet And many a burdened licorice bush Was blooming round our feet; Red hair she had and golden skin, Her sulky lips were shaped for sin, Her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd, The strongest legs in Pontefract.

—Betjeman, SirJohn

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God.

—Browning, Elizabeth ne¤  e Barrett

   And the angel of the L appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, thebushburnedwithfire,andthebushwasnotconsumed.

—Bible (Old Testament)

I am proud that I am an Australian, a daughter of the Southern Cross, a child of the mighty bush. I am thankful I am a peasant, a part of the bone and muscle of my nation, and earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, as man was meant to do. I rejoice I was not born a parasite, one of the blood-suckers who loll on velvet and satin, crushed from the proceeds of human sweat and blood and souls.

—of Bin Bin

Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

—Thomas, R(onald) S(tuart)

Have you seen the bush by moonlight, from the train, go running by? Blackened log and stump and sapling, ghostly trees all dead and dry; Here a patch of glassy water; there a glimpse of mystic sky? Have you heard the still voice callingöyet so warm, and yet so cold: 'I'm the Mother-Bush that bore you! Come to me when you are old'?

—Lawson, Henry Hertzberg

As for meöfor me, the grass grew longer, and more sorrowful, and the trees were surfaced like flesh, and girls were no longer to be treated lightly but were creatures of commanding sadness, and all journeys through the valley were now made alone, with passion in every bush, and the motions of wind and cloud and stars were suddenly for myself alone, and voices elected me of all men living and called me to deliver the world, and I groaned from solitude, blushed when I stumbled, loved strangers and bread and butter, and made long trips through the rain on my bicycle, stared wretchedly through lighted windows, grinned wryly to think how little I was known, and lived in a state of raging excitement.

—Lee, Laurie

Andthesunsankagainonthegrand Australianbushöthe nurseandtutorofeccentric minds, thehome oftheweird, and of much that is different from things in other lands.

—Lawson, Henry Hertzberg

Proud Maisie is in the wood, Walking so early; Sweet Robin sits on the bush, Singing so rarely.

—Scott, Sir Walter

We will listen to the wind's text Blown through the roof, or the thrush's song In the thick bush that proved him wrong, Wrong from the start, for nature's truth Is primary and her changing seasons Correct out of a vaster reason The vague errors of the flesh.

—Thomas, R(onald) S(tuart)

Browse dictionary entries near bush

  1. busby
  2. busboy
  3. bus topology
  4. bus
  5. bury
  6. burweed
  7. Burundi
  8. Buru
  9. burton
  10. burthen
  1. bush baby
  2. bush bean
  3. bush jacket
  4. bush league
  5. bush leaguer
  6. bush lot
  7. bush pig
  8. bushbuck
  9. bushed
  10. bushel