Synonyms for beat the bushes
Grammar : Verb |
Spell : boo sh |
Phonetic Transcription : bʊʃ |
Définition of beat the bushes
Origin :- "many-stemmed woody plant," Old English bysc, from West Germanic *busk "bush, thicket" (cf. Old Saxon and Old High German busc, Dutch bosch, bos, German Busch). Influenced by or combined with cognate words from Scandinavian (cf. Old Norse buskr, Danish busk, but this might be from West Germanic) and Old French (busche "firewood," apparently of Frankish origin), and also perhaps Anglo-Latin bosca "firewood," from Medieval Latin busca (whence Italian bosco, Spanish bosque, French bois), which apparently also was borrowed from West Germanic; cf. Boise.
- In British American colonies, applied from 1650s to the uncleared districts, hence "country," as opposed to town (1780); probably originally from Dutch bosch in the same sense, because it seems to appear first in English in former Dutch colonies. Meaning "pubic hair" (especially of a woman) is from 1745. To beat the bushes (mid-15c.) is a way to rouse birds so that they fly into the net which others are holding, which originally was the same thing as beating around the bush (see beat (v.)).
- verb search exhaustively
Words or expressions associated with your search
- ambush
- ambushed
- ambushes
- ambushment
- babushka
- be beaten
- be beaten path
- be off beaten path
- be off the beaten path
- be the beaten path
- beat
- beat around bush
- beat around the bush
- beat cop
- beat down
- beat it
- beat off
- beat the bushes
- beat the drum
- beat the game
- beat the rap
- beat the system
- beat up
- beaten
- beaten path
- beatific
- beatifically
- beatification
- beatify
- beating
- beatitude
- browbeat
- browbeaten
- bush
- bush leaguer
- bushed
- bushel
- bushes
- bushing
- bushman
- bushwhack
- bushy
- dead-beat
- deadbeat
- downbeat
- egg beater
- eggbeater
- heartbeat
- leave beaten path
- off beaten path
- off beaten track
- off the beaten path
- off the beaten track
- offbeat
- offbeats
- on beat
- on the beat
- take a beating
- takes a beating
- taking a beating
- unbeaten
- upbeat
- walk the beat
- walks the beat
- was beaten path
- was off beaten path
- was off the beaten path
- weather-beaten
Most wanted synonyms
Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019