bush

1 of 5

noun (1)

ˈbu̇sh 

often attributive

1

a

: shrub

especially : a low densely branched shrub

b

: a close thicket of shrubs suggesting a single plant

2

: a large uncleared or sparsely settled area (as in Australia) usually scrub-covered or forested : wilderness

—usually used with the

3

a

archaic : a bunch of ivy formerly hung outside a tavern to indicate wine for sale

b

obsolete : tavern

c

: advertising

good wine needs no bush

—William Shakespeare

4

: a bushy tuft or mass

a bush of hair

especially : brush entry 2 sense 2a

5

: minor league

—usually used in plural

spent ten years in the bushes

bush

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verb

bushed; bushing; bushes

transitive verb

: to support, mark, or protect with bushes

intransitive verb

: to extend like a bush : resemble a bush

bush

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adjective (1)

1

: having a low-growing compact bushy habit

—used especially of cultivated beans

bush snap beans

2

: serving, occurring in, or used in the bush

bush planes

bush

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noun (2)

chiefly British

: bushing

bush

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adjective (2)

: falling below acceptable standards : unprofessional

bush behavior

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• backcountry
• backland(s)
• backwater
• backwoods
• frontier
• hinterland
• outback
• outlands
• up-country

Adjective (2)

• bad
• bastard
• bush-league
• crummy
• crumby
• deficient
• dissatisfactory
• ill
• inferior
• lame
• lousy
• off
• paltry
• poor
• punk
• sour
• suboptimal
• subpar
• substandard
• unacceptable
• unsatisfactory
• wack [slang]
• wanting
• wretched
• wrong

Examples of bush in a Sentence

Noun (1)

a guide who specializes in taking adventurous tourists through the bush

Adjective (2)

a hopelessly bush effort at creating a romantic comedy

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Just at the entrance to the house are bottlebrush bushes on either side of the walkway. —Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 May 2024

Officers found Jackson lying in bushes on the side of a house on the same block. —Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 10 May 2024

The margins between building foundations and bushes provide mostly quiet pathways, access to food sources, shelter from weather and cover from predators such as hawks and owls. —Finian Curran/queens University News Service, Charlotte Observer, 9 May 2024

In the short clip, Mercury heads through a clearing of bushes before running toward an open area after spotting the woman. —Kimberlee Speakman, Peoplemag, 8 May 2024

The image—shared to the official Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) accounts of the Prince and Princess of Wales on Thursday morning—shows Charlotte in a garden, smiling beside a pink flower bush. —Armani Syed, TIME, 2 May 2024

Suddenly, the garden — which features a winding pathway scented by jasmine bushes and herbs that leads down to a grove of loquat, fig and Blenheim apricot trees — felt like an ideal place for a celebration. —Jean Trinh, New York Times, 2 May 2024

Trimming bushes and trees, removing combustible items and properly irrigating your yard are the first steps in protecting your home from wildfires. —Kira Caspers, The Arizona Republic, 24 Apr. 2024

Because, by that time, all the weeds and bushes had turned yellow. —Hanna Flanagan, Peoplemag, 28 Mar. 2024

Adjective

The handy device is designed with a tri-bush system, complete with side brushes, channel brushes, and a multi-surface brushroll that work in tandem to pick up all the dirt, hair, and dander scattered around the house. —Amy Schulman, PEOPLE.com, 10 July 2022

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English bussh, bosch, buissh "woods, thicket, underbrush, shrub, underbrush concealing a hunter or fighter," later forms (probably assimilated to an Anglo-French variant of *buis, bois "woodland, wood [the material]" with a final hushing consonant) of boske, buske, going back to Old English *busc, going back to Germanic *buska- (perhaps also beside an earlier u-stem *busku-) (whence also Old Saxon -busc in brāmalbusk "bramble bush," Middle Dutch bosch, busch "forest, bunch, bundle," Old High German busc, bosc "shrub, bramble bush, thicket, grove," Old Swedish buske "bush," Old Norse [Norway] buskær, a nickname, probably "the bushy-haired one," Old Icelandic Buski, name for a dog, probably "the bristly one"), of uncertain origin; (sense 2) probably after Dutch bosch in this sense

Note: The Germanic pedigree of *buska- is relatively meager for the early periods. Old English *busc is perhaps evident in the place name Wardebusc, Veardebusc (modern Warboys in Huntingdonshire), attested in tenth-century charters, though Ekwall (Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names) took it as of Scandinavian origin. The Old High German forms are attested only in glosses from the twelfth century or later. An earlier opinion, propounded in Skeat and the Oxford English Dictionary, first edition, was that the Germanic words were borrowed from "Late Latin"; however, Latin boscus "wood, woodland"—the form buscus is less frequent—is not attested before the early eighth century. The genuine depth of Germanic attestation for *buska- and congeners was thoroughly explicated by Johannes Hubschmied in "Romanisch-germanische Wortprobleme I. Zur Geschichte von bois, bûche (mit Berücksichtigung der Ortsnamen)," Vox Romanica, Band 29 (1970), pp. 82-122, 283-302. There now seems little question that the etymon is Germanic, and that corresponding Romance words are borrowed from Germanic. Note that beside *busk- a form *bosk- is evident in Middle English and elsewhere, especially Romance. Hubschmied explains *busk- as an outcome in an original u-stem, with *bosk- resulting from lowering before a non-high vowel in the next syllable; alternatively, the -u- could simply result from failure of lowering. Also widespread in Middle English, especially east midland and northern, and in early Scots, are forms without palatalized sk, as bosk(e), buske (compare bosky), which have been attributed both to Old Norse and to Anglo-French bosc. See also boiserie, boscage, bosquet and bouquet, and compare ambush entry 1.

Verb

derivative of bush entry 1

Adjective (1)

from attributive use of bush entry 1

Noun (2)

Dutch bus bushing, box, from Middle Dutch busse box, from Late Latin buxis — more at box entry 1

Adjective (2)

short for bush-league

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Adjective (1)

1595, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (2)

1566, in the meaning defined above

Adjective (2)

1959, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing bush

• a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
• beat about the bush
• beat around the bush
• beauty bush
• burning bush
• bush baby
• bush basil
• bush clover
• bush jacket
• bush league
• bush pilot
• bush shirt
• butterfly bush
• calico bush
• cranberry bush
• creosote bush
• rabbit bush
• red bush
• red bush tea
• strawberry bush
• sugar bush
• the bush

Kids Definition

bush

noun

ˈbu̇sh

1

: shrub

especially : a low densely branched shrub

2

: a stretch of uncleared or lightly settled country

3

: a bushy tuft or mass

Biographical Definition

Bush 1 of 3

biographical name (1)

ˈbu̇sh 

George (Herbert Walker) 1924–2018 American politician; vice president of the U.S. (1981–89); 41st president of the U.S. (1989–93)

Bush

2 of 3

biographical name (2)

George W(alker) 1946–     son of George H. W. Bush American politician; 43rd president of the U.S. (2001–09)

Bush

3 of 3

biographical name (3)

Van*ne*var və-ˈnē-vər  1890–1974 American electrical engineer