bush
Meanings
- 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.
- A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.
- A thicket, a small wood, or a tract of uncleared, woody land.
- 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.
- A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's.
- The tail, or brush, of a fox.
- To branch thickly in the manner of a bush.
- To set bushes for; to support with bushes.
- To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush.
- To become bushy (often used with up).
- A tavern or wine merchant.
- Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated, typically distinguished from absolute wilderness by implying a degree of marginal human engagement or proximity to settlement edges.
- The countryside area of Australia that is less arid and less remote than the outback; loosely, areas of natural flora even within conurbations.
- An area of New Zealand covered in forest, especially native forest.
- The wild forested areas of Canada; upcountry.
- A wood lot or bluff on a farm.
- Towards the direction of the outback.
- Not skilled; not professional; not major league.
- Amateurish behavior, short for bush league behavior
- A thick washer or hollow cylinder of metal.
- 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.
- A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored.
- To furnish with a bush or lining; to line.
- A surname from Middle English.
- George H. W. Bush, 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993
- George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009
- A place name:
- A village in Williamson County, Illinois, United States; from the surname.
- An unincorporated community in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Thurston County, Washington, United States; from the surname.
- A hamlet in Bude-Stratton parish, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SS2307).
- A hamlet in southern Aberdeenshire council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NO7665).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
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-).