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beat around the bush

 - 6 dictionary results

bush

1  [boosh]
Use beat around the bush in a Sentence
–noun
1. a low plant with many branches that arise from or near the ground.
2. a small cluster of shrubs appearing as a single plant.
3. something resembling or suggesting this, as a thick, shaggy head of hair.
4. Also called bush lot. Canadian. a small, wooded lot, esp. a farm lot with trees left standing to provide firewood, fence posts, etc.
5. the tail of a fox; brush.
6. Geography. a stretch of uncultivated land covered with mixed plant growth, bushy vegetation, trees, etc.
7. a large uncleared area thickly covered with mixed plant growth, trees, etc., as a jungle.
8. a large, sparsely populated area most of which is uncleared, as areas of Australia and Alaska.
9. a tree branch hung as a sign before a tavern or vintner's shop.
10. any tavern sign.
11. Slang: Vulgar. pubic hair.
12. Archaic. a wineshop.
–verb (used without object)
13. to be or become bushy; branch or spread as or like a bush.
–verb (used with object)
14. to cover, protect, support, or mark with a bush or bushes.
–adjective
15. bush-league.
—Idioms
16. beat around or about the bush, to avoid coming to the point; delay in approaching a subject directly: Stop beating around the bush and tell me what you want.
17. beat the bushes, to scout or search for persons or things far and wide: beating the bushes for engineers.
18. go bush, Australian.
a. to flee or escape into the bush.
b. Slang. to become wild.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME busshe, OE busc (in place-names); c. D bos wood, G Busch, ON buskr bush

Related forms:
bushless, adjective
bushlike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To beat around the bush
beat   (bēt)   
v.   beat, beat·en (bēt'n) or beat, beat·ing, beats

v.   tr.

    1. To strike repeatedly.

    2. To subject to repeated beatings or physical abuse; batter.

    3. To punish by hitting or whipping; flog.

    4. To strike against repeatedly and with force; pound: waves beating the shore.

    5. To flap, especially wings.

    6. To strike so as to produce music or a signal: beat a drum.

    7. Music To mark or count (time or rhythm), especially with the hands or with a baton.

    8. To shape or break by repeated blows; forge: beat the glowing metal into a dagger.

    9. To make by pounding or trampling: beat a path through the jungle.

    10. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    11. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    12. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    13. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    14. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    15. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

    1. To strike against repeatedly and with force; pound: waves beating the shore.

    2. To flap, especially wings.

    3. To strike so as to produce music or a signal: beat a drum.

    4. Music To mark or count (time or rhythm), especially with the hands or with a baton.

    5. To shape or break by repeated blows; forge: beat the glowing metal into a dagger.

    6. To make by pounding or trampling: beat a path through the jungle.

    7. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    8. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    9. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    10. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    11. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    12. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

    1. To shape or break by repeated blows; forge: beat the glowing metal into a dagger.

    2. To make by pounding or trampling: beat a path through the jungle.

    3. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    4. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    5. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    6. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    7. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    8. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

  4. To mix rapidly with a utensil: beat two eggs in a bowl.

    1. To defeat or subdue, as in a contest.

    2. To force to withdraw or retreat: beat back the enemy.

    3. To dislodge from a position: I beat him down to a lower price.

    4. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    5. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    6. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

  6. Informal To be superior to or better than: Riding beats walking.

  7. Slang To perplex or baffle: It beats me; I don't know the answer.

  8. Informal

    1. To avoid or counter the effects of, often by thinking ahead; circumvent: beat the traffic.

    2. To arrive or finish before (another): We beat you home by five minutes.

    3. To deprive, as by craft or ability: He beat me out of 20 dollars with his latest scheme.

  9. Physics To cause a reference wave to combine with (a second wave) so that the frequency of the second wave can be studied through time variations in the amplitude of the combination.

v.   intr.

  1. To inflict repeated blows.

  2. To pulsate; throb.

    1. To emit sound when struck: The gong beat thunderously.

    2. To strike a drum.

  4. To flap repeatedly.

  5. To shine or glare intensely: The sun beat down on us all day.

  6. To fall in torrents: The rain beat on the roof.

  7. To hunt through woods or underbrush in search of game.

  8. Nautical To sail in the direction from which the wind blows.

n.  

  1. A stroke or blow, especially one that produces a sound or serves as a signal.

  2. A pulsation or throb.

  3. Physics A variation in amplitude that results from the superpositioning of two or more waves of different frequencies. When sound waves are combined, the variation is heard as a pulsation in the sound.

  4. Music

    1. A steady succession of units of rhythm.

    2. A gesture used by a conductor to indicate such a unit.

    3. The area regularly covered by a reporter, a police officer, or a sentry: television's culture beat.

    4. The reporting of a news item obtained ahead of one's competitors.

  5. A pattern of stress that produces the rhythm of verse.

  6. A variable unit of time measuring a pause taken by an actor, as for dramatic effect.

    1. The area regularly covered by a reporter, a police officer, or a sentry: television's culture beat.

    2. The reporting of a news item obtained ahead of one's competitors.

  8. often Beat A member of the Beat Generation.

adj.  

  1. Informal Worn-out; fatigued.

  2. often Beat Of or relating to the Beat Generation.

  3. To drive away.

  4. Vulgar Slang To masturbate.

Phrasal Verb(s):
beat off

  1. To drive away.

  2. Vulgar Slang To masturbate.

beat outBaseball To reach base safely on (a bunt or ground ball) when a putout is attempted.

Idiom(s):
beat allTo be impressive or amazing. Often used in negative conditional constructions: If that doesn't beat all!

Idiom(s):
beat a retreatTo make a hasty withdrawal.

Idiom(s):
beat around/about the bushTo fail to confront a subject directly.

Idiom(s):
beat it Slang To leave hurriedly.

Idiom(s):
beat the bushesTo make an exhaustive search.

Idiom(s):
beat the drum/drumsTo give enthusiastic public support or promotion: a politician who beats the drum for liberalism.

Idiom(s):
beat up on

  1. To attack physically.

  2. To criticize or scold harshly.


Idiom(s):
to beat the bandTo an extreme degree.

[Middle English beten, from Old English bēaten; see bhau- in Indo-European roots.]
Synonyms: These verbs mean to hit heavily and repeatedly with violent blows: was mugged and beaten; basted him with a stick; was battered in the boxing ring; rioting students belabored by police officers; buffeted him with her open palm; hammered the opponent with his fists; lambasted every challenger; troops pounded with mortar fire; pummeled the bully soundly; thrashed the thief for stealing the candy. See Also Synonyms at defeat.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Cultural Dictionary

beat around the bush

To avoid getting to the point of an issue: “Your worries have nothing to do with the new proposal. Stop beating around the bush, and cast your vote!”

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
bush

  1. n.
    the pubic hair. (Usually objectionable.) : How old were you when you started growing a bush?
  2. n. a
    woman considered as a receptacle for the penis. (Rude and derogatory.) : Bubba says he gotta have some bush.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

bush 
"many-stemmed woody plant," O.E. bysc, from W.Gmc. *busk "bush, thicket;" infl. by or combined with cognate words from Scand. (cf. Dan. busk) and O.Fr. (busche "firewood," apparently of Frank. origin), and also perhaps Anglo-L. bosca "firewood," from M.L. busca (whence It. bosco, Fr. bois), which was also borrowed from W.Gmc. In British colonies, applied to the uncleared districts, hence "country," as opposed to town (1780); probably from Du. bosch, in the same sense, since it seems to appear first in former Du. colonies. Meaning "pubic hair" (especially of a woman) is from 1745. Bushed "tired" is 1870, perhaps from earlier sense of "lost in the woods" (1856). Bush league is from 1908, from bush in the slang sense of "rural, provincial" (1650s), which was not originally a value judgment. Bushman (1785) is from South African Du. boschjesman, lit. "man of the bush." To beat the bushes (c.1440) is a way to rouse birds so that they fly into the net which others are holding, which is a different matter than beating around the bush (1520) rather than going at it directly.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

beat around the bush

Also, beat about the bush. Approach indirectly, in a roundabout way, or too cautiously. For example, Stop beating around the bushget to the point. This term, first recorded in 1572, originally may have alluded to beating the bushes for game.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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