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bushes

 - 6 dictionary results

bush

1[boosh]
–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.
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


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
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To bushes
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.

  3. 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.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.
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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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