Wiktionary

bush

See also: Bush

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /bʊʃ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʊʃ

Etymology 1Edit

 
A bush (woody plant)

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”).

Cognate with West Frisian bosk (“forest”), Dutch bos (“forest”), German Busch (“bush”), Danish and Norwegian busk (“bush, shrub”), Swedish buske (“bush, shrub”), Persian بیشه‎ (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. The sense 'pubic hair' was first attested in 1745.

NounEdit

bush (plural bushes)

  1. (horticulture) 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.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      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 shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.
    bushes to support pea vines
  3. (historical) 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.
  4. (slang, vulgar) A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's.
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], OCLC 731622352:
      As he stood on one side, unbuttoning his waistcoat and breeches, her fat brawny thighs hung down, and the whole greasy landscape lay fairly open to my view; a wide open mouthed gap, overshaded with a grizzly bush, seemed held out like a beggar′s wallet for its provision.
    • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 787:
      But no, the little pool of semen was there, proof positive, with droplets caught hanging in her bush.
    • 2002, “The Seed (2.0)”, in Phrenology, performed by The Roots:
      I push my seed in her bush for life / It's gonna work because I'm pushing it right
  5. (hunting) The tail, or brush, of a fox.
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from bush (Etymology 1)
TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

bush (third-person singular simple present bushes, present participle bushing, simple past and past participle bushed)

  1. (intransitive) To branch thickly in the manner of a bush.
    • 1726, Homer, Alexander Pope (translator), The Odyssey, 1839, Samuel Johnson (editor), The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., page 404,
      Around it, and above, for ever green, / The bushing alders form'd a shady scene.
  2. To set bushes for; to support with bushes.
    to bush peas
  3. 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
  4. To become bushy (often used with up).
    I can tell when my cat is upset because he'll bush up his tail.

Etymology 2Edit

From the sign of a bush usually employed to indicate such places.

NounEdit

bush (plural bushes)

  1. (archaic) A tavern or wine merchant.
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 3Edit

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.

NounEdit

bush (countable and uncountable, plural bushes)

  1. (often with "the") Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.
    1. (Australia) The countryside area of Australia that is less arid and less remote than the outback; loosely, areas of natural flora even within conurbations.
      • 1894, Henry Lawson, “We Called Him “Ally” for Short”, in Short Stories in Prose and Verse‎[1]:
        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.
      • 1899, Ethel C. Pedley, Dot and the Kangaroo‎[2]:
        Little Dot had lost her way in the bush.
      • 2000, Robert Holden; Paul Cliff; Jack Bedson, The Endless Playground: Celebrating Australian Childhood, page 16:
        The theme of children lost in the bush is a well-worked one in Australian art and literature.
      • 2021 September 6, “Australian farmers under pressure from climate change”, in Australian Herald‎[3]:
        The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggest Australia may have to jettison tracts of the bush unless there is a massive investment in climate-change adaptation and planning.
    2. (New Zealand) An area of New Zealand covered in forest, especially native forest.
    3. (Canada) The wild forested areas of Canada; upcountry.
  2. (Canada) A woodlot or bluff on a farm.
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from bush (Etymology 3)
Related termsEdit
  • bushman (not derived from bush but separately derived from cognate Dutch)
DescendantsEdit
  • → Dutch: bush, bushbush
TranslationsEdit
See alsoEdit

AdverbEdit

bush (not comparable)

  1. (Australia) Towards the direction of the outback.
    On hatching, the chicks scramble to the surface and head bush on their own.

Etymology 4Edit

Back-formation from bush league.

AdjectiveEdit

bush (comparative more bush, superlative most bush)

  1. (colloquial) Not skilled; not professional; not major league.
    They're supposed to be a major league team, but so far they've been bush.

NounEdit

bush

  1. (baseball) Amateurish behavior, short for "bush league behavior"

Etymology 5Edit

From Middle Dutch busse (“box; wheel bushing”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhsā. More at box.

NounEdit

bush (plural bushes)

  1. A thick washer or hollow cylinder of metal.
  2. 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.
  3. A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored.
SynonymsEdit
Related termsEdit

VerbEdit

bush (third-person singular simple present bushes, present participle bushing, simple past and past participle bushed)

  1. (transitive) To furnish with a bush or lining; to line.
    to bush a pivot hole

AnagramsEdit

AlbanianEdit

Alternative formsEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Either borrowed through Vulgar Latin from Latin buxus,[1] or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH (“to grow”) (compare Dutch bos (“woods”), English bush).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bush m (indefinite plural bushe, definite singular bushi, definite plural bushet)

  1. (botany) boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)
Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH (“to grow”).

NounEdit

bush m (indefinite plural busha, definite singular bushi, definite plural bushat)

  1. a mythological monster
DeclensionEdit
Declension of bush
indefinite forms
(trajta të pashquara) 		definite forms
(trajta të shquara)
singular
(numri njëjës) 		plural
(numri shumës) 		singular
(numri njëjës) 		plural
(numri shumës)
nominative
(emërore) 		(një) bush (disa) busha bushi bushat
accusative
(kallëzore) 		(një) bush (disa) busha bushin bushat
genitive
(gjinore)
(i/e/të/së) 		(një) bushi (disa) bushave bushit bushavet
dative
(dhanore) 		(një) bushi (disa) bushave bushit bushavet
ablative
(rrjedhore)
(prej) 		(një) bushi (disa) bushash bushit bushavet
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ Orel, Vladimir (1998), “bush”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, →ISBN, page 42

AromanianEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

Compare Romanian buș.

NounEdit

bush m (plural bush) or n (plural bushi/bushe)

  1. fist

SynonymsEdit

BurushaskiEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bush (plural bushongo)

  1. cat

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Sadaf Munshi (2015), “Word Lists”, in Burushaski Language Documentation Project‎[4].

Middle EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old English busc, bysc, from Proto-West Germanic *busk. Cognates include Middle Dutch bosch, busch, Middle High German busch, bosch, and also Old French bois, buisson.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bush (plural bushes)

  1. bush (low-lying plant)

DescendantsEdit

ReferencesEdit

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