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bush - 19 dictionary results
Bush
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bush

1  [boosh]
Use 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

bush

2  [boosh]
–noun
1. a lining of metal or the like set into an orifice to guard against wearing by friction, erosion, etc.
2. a bushing.
–verb (used with object)
3. to furnish with a bush; line with metal.
Origin:
1560–70; < MD bussche; see box 1

Bush

  [boosh]
–noun
1. Barbara (Barbara Pierce), born 1925, U.S. first lady 1989–93 (wife of George H. W. Bush).
2. George (Herbert Walker), born 1924, U.S. politician: vice president 1981–89; 41st president of the U.S. 1989–93.
3. his son, George W(alker) (“Dubya”), born 1946, U.S. businessman and politician: governor of Texas 1994–2001; 43rd president of the U.S. since 2001.
4. Van⋅ne⋅var  [vuh-nee-vahr, -ver] , 1890–1974, U.S. electrical engineer: education and research administrator.

bush.

 
bushel; bushels.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To bush
bush 1   (bŏŏsh)   
n.  
  1. A low shrub with many branches.
  2. A thick growth of shrubs; a thicket.
    1. Land covered with dense vegetation or undergrowth.
    2. Land remote from settlement: the Australian bush.
    3. A shaggy mass, as of hair.
    4. Vulgar Slang A growth of pubic hair.
    5. Archaic A clump of ivy hung outside a tavern to indicate the availability of wine inside.
    6. Obsolete A tavern.
    1. A shaggy mass, as of hair.
    2. Vulgar Slang A growth of pubic hair.
    3. Archaic A clump of ivy hung outside a tavern to indicate the availability of wine inside.
    4. Obsolete A tavern.
  5. A fox's tail.
    1. Archaic A clump of ivy hung outside a tavern to indicate the availability of wine inside.
    2. Obsolete A tavern.
v.   bushed, bush·ing, bushes

v.   intr.
  1. To grow or branch out like a bush.
  2. To extend in a bushy growth.
v.   tr.
To decorate, protect, or support with bushes.
adj.  Slang Bush-league; second-rate: "Reviewers here have tended to see in him a kind of bush D.H. Lawrence" (Saturday Review).

[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.]
bush 2   (bŏŏsh)   
tr.v.   bushed, bush·ing, bush·es
To furnish or line with a bushing.

[From bush, bushing, possibly alteration of Dutch bus, box.]
Bush   (bŏŏsh)   


(click for larger image in new window)
First Lady of the United States (1989-1993) as the wife of President George Bush. She has been active in promoting literacy.
Bush, George Herbert Walker Born 1924.  


(click for larger image in new window)
The 41st President of the United States (1989-1993). A former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976-1977) and vice president (1981-1989) under Ronald Reagan, as president he initiated the Gulf War (1991) in response to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
Bush, George Walker Born 1946.  
The 43rd president of the United States (2001-2009). A former oil company executive and governor of Texas (1994-2000), Bush defeated Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, losing the popular vote but winning a majority in the electoral college. His administration was marked by an American-led invasion of Afghanistan in response to al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, by the Iraq War, and by federal support of failed banks and insurance companies during a large-scale credit crisis.
Bush, Laura Born 1946.  
First Lady of the United States (2001-2009) as the wife of President George W. Bush. She has championed education causes and women's health issues.
Bush, Vannevar 1890-1974.  
American electrical engineer and physicist who designed (1928) the differential analyzer, an early computer, and directed the World War II effort to develop the first atomic bomb.
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

Bush

Bush\, n. [OE. bosch, busch, buysch, bosk, busk; akin to D. bosch, OHG. busc, G. busch, Icel. b[=u]skr, b[=u]ski, Dan. busk, Sw. buske, and also to LL. boscus, buscus, Pr. bosc, It. bosco, Sp. & Pg. bosque, F. bois, OF. bos. Whether the LL. or G. form is the original is uncertain; if the LL., it is perh. from the same source as E. box a case. Cf. Ambush, Boscage, Bouquet, Box a case.]

1. A thicket, or place abounding in trees or shrubs; a wild forest.

Note: This was the original sense of the word, as in the Dutch bosch, a wood, and was so used by Chaucer. In this sense it is extensively used in the British colonies, especially at the Cape of Good Hope, and also in Australia and Canada; as, to live or settle in the bush.

2. A shrub; esp., a shrub with branches rising from or near the root; a thick shrub or a cluster of shrubs.

To bind a bush of thorns among sweet-smelling flowers. --Gascoigne.

3. A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree; as, bushes to support pea vines.

4. A shrub or branch, properly, a branch of ivy (as sacred to Bacchus), hung out at vintners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and symbolically, the tavern itself.

If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 't is true that a good play needs no epilogue. --Shak.

5. (Hunting) The tail, or brush, of a fox.

To beat about the bush, to approach anything in a round-about manner, instead of coming directly to it; -- a metaphor taken from hunting.

Bush bean (Bot.), a variety of bean which is low and requires no support (Phaseolus vulgaris, variety nanus). See Bean, 1.

Bush buck, or Bush goat (Zo["o]l.), a beautiful South African antelope (Tragelaphus sylvaticus); -- so called because found mainly in wooden localities. The name is also applied to other species.

Bush cat (Zo["o]l.), the serval. See Serval.

Bush chat (Zo["o]l.), a bird of the genus Pratincola, of the Thrush family.

Bush dog. (Zo["o]l.) See Potto.

Bush hammer. See Bushhammer in the Vocabulary.

Bush harrow (Agric.) See under Harrow.

Bush hog (Zo["o]l.), a South African wild hog (Potamoch[oe]rus Africanus); -- called also bush pig, and water hog.

Bush master (Zo["o]l.), a venomous snake (Lachesis mutus) of Guinea; -- called also surucucu.

Bush pea (Bot.), a variety of pea that needs to be bushed.

Bush shrike (Zo["o]l.), a bird of the genus Thamnophilus, and allied genera; -- called also batarg. Many species inhabit tropical America.

Bush tit (Zo["o]l.), a small bird of the genus Psaltriparus, allied to the titmouse. P. minimus inhabits California.

Bush

Bush\, v. i. To branch thickly in the manner of a bush. "The bushing alders." --Pope.

Bush

Bush\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bushed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Bushing.]

1. To set bushes for; to support with bushes; as, to bush peas.

2. To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush; as, to bush a piece of land; to bush seeds into the ground.

Bush

Bush\, n. [D. bus a box, akin to E. box; or F. boucher to plug.]

1. (Mech.) A lining for a hole to make it smaller; a thimble or ring of metal or wood inserted in a plate or other part of machinery to receive the wear of a pivot or arbor. --Knight.

Note: In the larger machines, such a piece is called a box, particularly in the United States.

2. (Gun.) A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored. --Farrow.

Bush

Bush\, v. t. To furnish with a bush, or lining; as, to bush a pivot hole.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : bush
Spanish: arbusto,
German: der Busch,
Japanese: かん木
More Translations »

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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Bush

in which Jehovah appeared to Moses in the wilderness (Ex. 3:2; Acts 7:30). It is difficult to say what particular kind of plant or bush is here meant. Probably it was the mimosa or acacia. The words "in the bush" in Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37, mean "in the passage or paragraph on the bush;" i.e., in Ex. 3.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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bush

see beat around the bush; beat the bushes for; bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

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