bush
Part of speech: noun
verb
adv
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: agriculture
business
hobbies
horticulture
hunting
lifestyle
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 (“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-).
Inflected forms:
form: bushes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bushes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: bushing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: bushed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: bushed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: more bush
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most bush
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.
pos: noun
examples: bushes to support pea vines
gloss: A thicket, a small wood, or a tract of uncleared, woody land.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
dialectal
examples: We saw a bush of wood, and in the heart of it a little open space.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: If it be true, that good wine needs no buſh, 'tis true, that a good play needes no Epilogue.
"Well," replied Lady Mary, "who is to know where good wine is sold, unless you hang out the bush."
gloss: A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's.
pos: noun
tags: slang
vulgar
examples: 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'^([sic]) proviſion.
I rub her bush with my cheek and my chin, tickle her bonne-bouche with my tongue.
But no, the little pool of semen was there, proof positive, with droplets caught hanging in her bush.
I push my seed in her bush for life / It's gonna work because I'm pushing it right
I think on Saturday I'm gonna find out if red-haired girls have a red bush!
gloss: The tail, or brush, of a fox.
pos: noun
gloss: To branch thickly in the manner of a bush.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Around it, and above, for ever green, / The bushing alders form'd a shady scene.
gloss: To set bushes for; to support with bushes.
pos: verb
examples: to bush peas
gloss: To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush.
pos: verb
examples: to bush a piece of land; to bush seeds into the ground
gloss: To become bushy (often used with up).
pos: verb
examples: I can tell when my cat is upset because he’ll bush up his tail.
gloss: Towards the direction of the outback.
pos: adv
tags: Australia
not-comparable
examples: On hatching, the chicks scramble to the surface and head bush on their own.
gloss: Not skilled; not professional; not major league.
pos: adj
tags: colloquial
examples: They’re supposed to be a major league team, but so far they've been bush.
Related words: ambush
bouquet
Translations: