What does "bush" mean?
A woody plant distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, being usually less than six metres tall; a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category.
Bush
/bʊʃ/ adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A woody plant distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, being usually less than six metres tall; a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category.
- Grammar: bush is listed as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: scrub, shrub, afforestation, arabia deserta.
- Useful contrasts: city, clearing, open field.
- Usage evidence: Stop beating around the bush and give it to me straight!
How to use "bush"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bush" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bush" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bush" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bush" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bush" is acting as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "scrub" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bush", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A woody plant distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, being usually less than six metres tall; a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category.
"I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn."
- 2 A tavern or wine merchant. archaic
- 3 Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated. countable, often, uncountable, with-definite-article
"Mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned."
- 4 Amateurish behavior, short for bush league behavior
- 5 A thick washer or hollow cylinder of metal.
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 hair growing in the pubic area wordnet
- 7 A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.
"bushes to support pea vines"
- 8 Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.; The countryside area of Australia that is less arid and less remote than the outback; loosely, areas of natural flora even within conurbations. Australia, countable, often, uncountable, with-definite-article
"I remember, about five years ago, I was greatly annoyed by a ghost, while doing a job of fencing in the bush between here and Perth."
- 9 A mechanical attachment, usually a metallic socket with a screw thread, such as the mechanism by which a camera is attached to a tripod stand.
- 10 dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes wordnet
- 11 A shrub or branch, properly, a branch of ivy (sacred to Bacchus), hung out at vintners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and symbolically, the tavern itself. historical
"If it be true, that good wine needs no buſh, 'tis true, that a good play needes no Epilogue."
- 12 Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.; An area of New Zealand covered in forest, especially native forest. New-Zealand, countable, often, uncountable, with-definite-article
- 13 A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored.
- 14 a large wilderness area wordnet
- 15 A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's. slang, vulgar
"As he ſtood on one ſide for a minute or ſo, unbuttoning his waſte-coat, and breeches, her fat brawny thighs hung down, and the whole greaſy landſkip lay fairly open to my view: a wide open-mouth’d gap, overſhaded with a grizzly buſh, ſeemed held out like a beggar’s wallet for its’ proviſion."
- 16 Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.; The wild forested areas of Canada; upcountry. Canada, countable, often, uncountable, with-definite-article
- 17 a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems wordnet
- 18 The tail, or brush, of a fox.
- 19 A wood lot or bluff on a farm. Canada, countable, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To branch thickly in the manner of a bush. intransitive
"Around it, and above, for ever green, / The bushing alders form'd a shady scene."
- 2 To furnish with a bush or lining; to line. transitive
"to bush a pivot hole"
- 3 provide with a bushing wordnet
- 4 To set bushes for; to support with bushes.
"to bush peas"
- 5 To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush.
"to bush a piece of land; to bush seeds into the ground"
Show 1 more definition
- 6 To become bushy (often used with up).
"I can tell when my cat is upset because he’ll bush up his tail."
Adjective
- 1 Not skilled; not professional; not major league. colloquial
"They’re supposed to be a major league team, but so far they've been bush."
Adjective
- 1 not of the highest quality or sophistication wordnet
Adverb
- 1 Towards the direction of the outback. Australia, not-comparable
"On hatching, the chicks scramble to the surface and head bush on their own."
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname from Middle English. countable, uncountable
"In March 1953, a month after Jeb was born, the Bush family received the devastating news that Robin had leukemia. A local doctor told the Bushes that doctors had never seen a white blood cell count that high and there was nothing they could do for her."
- 2 A surname from Middle English.; George H. W. Bush, 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 countable, uncountable
- 3 A surname from Middle English.; George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 countable, uncountable
"This means Gore will have to stop dancing away from the question as if the pardon decision were somehow shared with the pardonee. It's time he chose the hard right over the easy wrong answer. (For Bush, it would be an opportunity to demonstrate nonpartisan compassion on a grand scale.)"
- 4 A place name:; A village in Williamson County, Illinois, United States; from the surname. countable, uncountable
- 5 A place name:; An unincorporated community in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. countable, uncountable
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- 6 A place name:; An unincorporated community in Thurston County, Washington, United States; from the surname. countable, uncountable
- 7 A place name:; A hamlet in Bude-Stratton parish, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SS2307). countable, uncountable
- 8 A place name:; A hamlet in southern Aberdeenshire council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NO7665). countable, uncountable
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"Stop beating around the bush and give it to me straight!"
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bush"?
Common synonyms include: scrub, shrub, afforestation, arabia deserta, arboretum, back country.
How do you use "bush" in a sentence?
Stop beating around the bush and give it to me straight!
How do you pronounce "bush"?
Pronounced /bʊʃ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English bush, from Old English *busċ, *bysċ (“copse, grove, scrub”, in placenames), from Proto-West Germanic *busk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, thicket”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow”). Doublet of bosque. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Busk (“bush”), West Frisian bosk (“forest”), Dutch bos, bosch (“forest, wood”), German Busch (“bush, shrub; small forest, grove”), Luxembourgish Bësch (“forest, wood”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk busk (“bush, shrub”), Icelandic buski (“bush, shrub”), Swedish buske (“bush, shrub”), Persian بیشه (bêša/biše, “woods”). Latin and Romance forms (Latin boscus, Occitan bòsc, French bois, bûche and buisson, Italian bosco and boscaglia, Spanish bosque, Portuguese bosque) derive from the Germanic. Compare typologically Russian за́росли (zárosli) (akin to расти́ (rastí)). Also compare Russian быльё (bylʹjó) (distantly cognate via *bʰuH-).
Etymology 2
From the sign of a bush usually employed to indicate such places.
Etymology 3
From older Dutch bosch (modern bos (“wood, forest”)), first appearing in the Dutch colonies to designate an uncleared district of a colony, and thence adopted in British colonies as bush. Could alternatively be interpreted as a semantic loan, as bush (etymology 1) is cognate to the aforementioned archaic Dutch bosch.
Etymology 4
Back-formation from bush league.
Etymology 5
From Middle Dutch busse (“box; wheel bushing”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhsā. More at box.
Etymology 6
Either the family name for those who live near a bush or a thicket of bushes, or the family name for those living at or near a bush (in the archaic sense of wine merchant or tavern).