noun
- A low shrub with many branches.
- A thick growth of shrubs; a thicket.
a. Land covered with dense vegetation or undergrowth.
b. Land remote from settlement: the Australian bush.
a. A shaggy mass, as of hair.
b. Vulgar Slang A growth of pubic hair.
- A fox's tail.
a. Archaic A clump of ivy hung outside a tavern to indicate the availability of wine inside.
b. Obsolete A tavern.
verb
bushed, bush·ing, bushes verb
intransitive- To grow or branch out like a bush.
- To extend in a bushy growth.
verb
transitiveTo decorate, protect, or support with bushes.
adjective
Slang Bush-league; second-rate: “Reviewers here have tended to see in him a kind of bush D.H. Lawrence” ( Saturday Review )
Origin of bush
Middle English
partly from Old English
busc partly from Old French
bois wood (
of Germanic origin )
and partly of Scandinavian origin (
akin to Danish
busk )
N., sense 3, possibly from Dutch
bosch transitive verb
bushed, bush·ing, bush·es To furnish or line with a bushing.
Origin of bush
From bush bushing possibly alteration of Dutch
bus box
Noun (plural bushes)
- (horticulture) A woody plant distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, being usually less than six metres tall; a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category.
- (slang) A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's; loosely, a woman's vulva.
- A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.
- bushes to support pea vines
- A shrub or branch, properly, a branch of ivy (sacred to Bacchus), hung out at vintners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and symbolically, the tavern itself.
- (hunting) The tail, or brush, of a fox.
Verb (third-person singular simple present bushes, present participle bushing, simple past and past participle bushed)
- (intransitive) To branch thickly in the manner of a bush.
- To set bushes for; to support with bushes.
- to bush peas
- To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush.
- to bush a piece of land; to bush seeds into the ground
Origin From Middle English busch, busshe, from Old English busc, bysc (“copse, grove, scrub”, in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, thicket”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow”). Cognate with West Frisian bosk (“woods”), Dutch bos (“woods”), German Busch (“bush”), Danish busk (“bush, shrub”), Swedish buske (“bush, shrub”), Persian بیشه (“woods”). Latin and Romance forms (Latin boscus, Occitan bòsc, French bois and buisson, Italian bosco and boscaglia, Spanish bosque, Portuguese bosque) derive from the Germanic. The sense 'pubic hair' was first attested in 1745.
Noun (plural bushes)
- (archaic) A tavern or wine merchant.
Origin From the sign of a bush usually employed to indicate such places.
Noun (countable and uncountable, plural bushes)
- (often with "the") Rural areas, typically remote, wooded, undeveloped and uncultivated.
- (Australia) The countryside area of Australia that is less arid and less remote than the outback; loosely, areas of natural flora even within conurbations.
- (New Zealand) An area of New Zealand covered in forest, especially native forest.
- (Canada) The wild forested areas of Canada; upcountry.
- (Canada) A woodlot or bluff on a farm.
Adjective (not comparable)
- The noun "bush", used attributively.
- The bush vote; bush party; bush tucker; bush aristocracy; bush tea
Adverb (not comparable)
- (Australia) Towards the direction of the outback.
- On hatching, the chicks scramble to the surface and head bush on their own.
Origin From Middle Dutch bosch (modern bos) ("wood, forest"), first appearing in the Dutch colonies to designate an uncleared district of a colony, and thence adopted in British colonies as bush.
Adjective (comparative more bush, superlative most bush)
- (colloquial) Not skilled; not professional; not major league.
- They're supposed to be a major league team, but so far they've been bush.
Noun (plural bushes)
- (baseball) Amateurish behavior, short for "bush league behavior"
- The way that pitcher showed up the batter after the strikeout was bush.
Origin Back-formation from bush league.
Noun (plural bushes)
- A thick washer or hollow cylinder of metal (also bushing).
- A mechanical attachment, usually a metallic socket with a screw thread, such as the mechanism by which a camera is attached to a tripod stand.
- A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored.
Verb (third-person singular simple present bushes, present participle bushing, simple past and past participle bushed)
- To furnish with a bush or lining.
- to bush a pivot hole
Origin From Middle Dutch busse 'box; wheel bushing', from Proto-Germanic *buhsiz (compare English box). More at box.
Proper noun (plural Bushes)
- A surname.
Origin Either the family name for those who live near a bush or a thicket of bushes, or the family name for those living at or near a bush (in the archaic sense of wine merchant or tavern).
