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Beat the bushes

verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    Synonym of pound the pavement (“to campaign diligently; to seek something”). Canada, US, idiomatic

    "They started beating the bushes in search of a commercially available solvent that would aid their manufacturing but wouldn't be too horribly toxic and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg."

Etymology

Both beat the bushes and scare up have figurative senses, referring to traversing the landscape seeking difficult-to-find things, that arose by extension from their senses referring to driving game out of the bush when hunting.

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