DictionaryAI

bush

BUUSH/bʊʃ/

Pluralbushes

16 meanings of bush

Practice

  1. 1
    shrubnouncountable
    A woody, multi-stemmed plant of low height, usually under six meters tall, classed by gardening tradition rather than by strict botanical rank.

    Each bush in the hedge needs trimming twice a year.

    Gardeners prune a bush hard to keep its many stems compact and even.

    Similarshrub

    Note

    Because the category belongs to horticulture, not botany, no rule fixes where a bush ends and a small tree begins. Shrub is the near-synonym, and berry plants take the word naturally, as in Joseph C. Lincoln's "huckleberry bushes" (1913).

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The distinction between a bush and a small tree is conventional and has no universally fixed boundary. pubs.ext.vt.edu
    • Joseph C. Lincoln used the exact words huckleberry bushes in Mr. Pratt's Patients. upload.wikimedia.org
    • The Lincoln quotation dates from a work first published in 1913. upload.wikimedia.org
  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountablewith the
    Wild, undeveloped country covered in natural vegetation such as scrub or forest, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Canada; often the bush.

    They hiked for days through dense bush without crossing a single road.

    Much of the region is still untouched bush, never cleared for farming.

    Similarwilderness, scrub, backcountry, wilds, brush

    Note

    Here the plant word spread to wild country. Dutch colonists used bosch, "wood," for uncleared districts, and English in the colonies probably stretched its own cognate bush to the same land under that influence. It usually takes the: people scatter "through the bush" in Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899).

  3. 3
    pubic hairnounslangvulgarcountable
    A vulgar slang word for a person's pubic hair, especially a woman's.

    The comedian's whole set leaned on tasteless jokes about his ex's bush.

    He muttered something coarse about her bush and was thrown out of the bar.

    UsageIn polite or medical contexts, say pubic hair instead.

    Note

    John Cleland's Fanny Hill uses it in 1748, Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell use it in the twentieth century, and The Roots use it in a 2002 lyric.

  4. 4
    nouncountable
    A metal lining, sleeve, washer, or socket fitted into a hole, used to reduce wear or to connect one part to another; a bushing.

    The mechanic pressed a fresh bush into the pivot to take up the play.

    A steel bush reduces wear where the two moving parts rub together.

    Similarsleeve, liner

    Note

    A separate word that only looks like the plant. Middle Dutch busse meant both a box and a wheel bushing, and it is related to box itself. In engineering the fitting is a liner that takes the wear where moving parts turn or rub, and bushing names the same thing.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The engineering noun has a separate origin from the plant noun and comes from Middle Dutch busse. en.wiktionary.org
    • Middle Dutch busse meant both a box and a wheel bushing. en.wiktionary.org
    • The engineering noun is etymologically related to box. en.wiktionary.org
    • The fitting provides a surface where moving parts slide or rotate, taking wear, and is also called a bushing. en.wikipedia.org

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of bush apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1, 3, 6–7, 13

From Middle English bush, probably from an unrecorded Old English *busċ, going back to Proto-Germanic *buskaz ('bush, thicket'), possibly from a Proto-Indo-European root *bʰuH- ('to grow'). It has cognates in German Busch, Dutch bos, and Swedish buske, and the Latin and Romance forms such as French bois and Spanish bosque probably derive from the Germanic.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

  • English bush derives from Middle English bush. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Germanic ancestor is Proto-Germanic *buskaz, meaning bush or thicket. en.wiktionary.org
  • The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *bʰuH- includes the meaning to grow. en.wiktionary.org
  • German Busch, Dutch bos, and Swedish buske are cognates of English bush. en.wiktionary.org
Meanings 2, 9–10

Probably the English word 'bush' (etymology 1) extended to wild land under the influence of older Dutch bosch (modern bos, 'wood, forest'), its cognate, which Dutch colonists used for an uncleared district. A direct borrowing from Dutch in British colonies is less likely.

Meanings 5, 8

A back-formation from 'bush league'.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

Meanings 4, 11–12

Proto-West Germanic *buhsā became Middle Dutch busse (a "box" or "wheel bushing"), which English took over. The word is related to box.