# bush

Pronunciation: say "BUUSH" /bʊʃ/

## Noun

1. A woody, multi-stemmed plant of low height, usually under six meters tall, classed by gardening tradition rather than by strict botanical rank.
   - Simple: A woody plant with many stems, shorter than a tree and usually under six meters tall.
   - _Each bush in the hedge needs trimming twice a year._
   - _Gardeners prune a bush hard to keep its many stems compact and even._
2. Wild, undeveloped country covered in natural vegetation such as scrub or forest, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and Canada; often the bush.
   - Simple: Wild land far from towns, covered with trees, bushes, and other plants that grow naturally.
   - _They hiked for days through dense bush without crossing a single road._
   - _Much of the region is still untouched bush, never cleared for farming._
3. A vulgar slang word for a person's pubic hair, especially a woman's. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A rude slang word for the hair around a person's private parts, 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._
4. A metal lining, sleeve, washer, or socket fitted into a hole, used to reduce wear or to connect one part to another; a bushing.
   - Simple: A small metal ring or tube fitted into a hole in a machine part. 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._
7. A shrub that has been cut off, or a shrublike branch taken from a tree.
   - Simple: A shrub that has been cut down, or a branch from a tree that looks like a shrub.
   - _She stuck a row of cut hazel bushes along the bed so the young pea vines could climb them._
   - _He dragged a thorny bush, freshly cut from the hedge, across the gap to keep the sheep in._
8. Amateurish, unprofessional conduct, especially unsportsmanlike play; a shortening of bush league behavior.
   - Simple: Behavior that is unskilled or unfair, not good enough for real pros.
   - _Stalling to run out the clock struck the announcers as pure bush._
   - _Fans booed when the pitcher stared down the batter after the strikeout, calling it pure bush._
9. A farm's wood lot, or a bluff of trees standing on farmland. *(Canada)*
   - Simple: A small area of trees that is part of a farm.
   - _Their sugar maples grow in the bush along the property's north line._
   - _After the harvest, the cattle were turned loose to graze in the bush._
12. A copper insert screwed into a gun and pierced by the drilled vent hole.
   - Simple: A copper plug fitted into a gun, with a small hole drilled through it.
   - _Repeated firing had eaten away the bush around the touch-hole._
   - _The armorer tapped a fresh bush into the breech and re-bored the vent._
13. Formerly, a branch, traditionally of ivy, hung outside a wine seller's door as a sign; hence such a sign, or the tavern or wine shop itself.
   - Simple: In the past, a branch hung outside a place selling wine as a sign, or the place itself.
   - _The vintner tied a fresh bush above his door the morning the new vintage was opened._
   - _Under the town's old rules, no one could hang out a bush without a license to sell wine._

## Adjective

5. Unskilled, unprofessional, or below major-league standard. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Done in a poor, amateur way that is not good enough for the top level.
   - _Pulling a stunt like that in front of clients is strictly bush._
   - _The announcer called the team's sloppy fielding downright bush._

## Verb

6. To grow thick and full, as a plant does when it puts out many branches or stems, or as fur does when it fluffs out; often with up.
   - Simple: To become thick and full, like a plant growing many branches or a tail fluffing out.
   - _With more sun and regular watering, the lavender should bush up and fill the gap by June._
   - _After a light trim in spring, the young hedge bushed out and filled the gaps along the fence._
11. To fit a hole or bearing with a bush or lining.
   - Simple: To fit a part with a metal lining that protects it from wear.
   - _They bushed the pivot points so the linkage would move smoothly under load._
   - _Before reassembly, you should bush the housing to take up the slack._

## Adverb

10. In the direction of the remote inland country, away from settled areas. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: Toward the wild country far away from towns.
   - _When things got too much for him, he would drive bush for the weekend._
   - _The drovers struck out bush, following the old stock route inland._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The tail of a fox, otherwise known as its brush.
- (verb) To support growing plants by setting twiggy branches around them for the stems to climb.
- (verb) To work sown land with a bush harrow (a frame of branches) so the brushwood covers the seed with soil.

## Origin

**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.
**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'.
**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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bush (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).