bush
bush [bush bushes bushed bushing] BrE [bʊʃ] NAmE [bʊʃ] noun
1. countable a plant that grows thickly with several hard ↑stems coming up from the root
•a rose bush
•holly bushes
compare ↑tree
2. countable a thing that looks like a bush, especially an area of thick hair or fur
3. (often the bush)uncountable an area of wild land that has not been cleared, especially in Africa and Australia; in New Zealand an area where the forest has not been cleared
see beat about/around the bush at ↑beat v., a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush at ↑bird
Word Origin:
Middle English: from Old French bos, bosc, variants of bois ‘wood’, reinforced by Old Norse buski, of Germanic origin and related to Dutch bos and German Busch. The sense ‘uncultivated country’ is probably directly from Dutch bos.
Example Bank:
•She was hiding in the bushes at the side of the lane.
•They went out into the bush.
•a large clump of rose bushes
•hills that have become a wasteland after the removal of native bush
•to prune the rose bushes
•Children are taught from an early age how to survive in the bush.
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