Definition of "bush"

bush¹

/bʊʃ/

noun
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.
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.
  Quotations
  If it be true that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue.
  c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iv]
  "Well," replied Lady Mary, "who is to know where good wine is sold, unless you hang out the bush."
  1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter IV. The Fête.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 31
4. (slang, vulgar) A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's.
  Quotations
  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.
  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] […]
  I rub her bush with my cheek and my chin, tickle her bonne-bouche with my tongue.
  1941, Henry Miller, Under the Roofs of Paris (Opus Pistorum), New York: Grove Press, published 1983, page 27
  But no, the little pool of semen was there, proof positive, with droplets caught hanging in her bush.
  1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 787
  I push my seed in her bush for life / It's gonna work because I'm pushing it right
  2002, “The Seed (2.0)”, in Phrenology, performed by The Roots
5. (hunting) The tail, or brush, of a fox.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  Around it, and above, for ever green, / The bushing alders form'd a shady scene.
  1726, Homer, “The Odyssey”, in Alexander Pope, transl., edited by Samuel Johnson, The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., published 1839, page 404
2. To set bushes for; to support with bushes.
3. To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush.
4. To become bushy (often used with up).

bush²

/bʊʃ/

noun
plural bushes
1. (archaic) A tavern or wine merchant.

bush³

/bʊʃ/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural bushes
1. (often with "the") Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.
  Quotations
  Mad terror had scattered them, men, women, and children, through the bush, and they had never returned.
  1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 199
  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.
    Quotations
    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.
    1894, Henry Lawson, “We Called Him “Ally” for Short”, in Short Stories in Prose and Verse‎
    Little Dot had lost her way in the bush.
    1899, Ethel C. Pedley, Dot and the Kangaroo‎
    The theme of children lost in the bush is a well-worked one in Australian art and literature.
    2000, Robert Holden, Paul Cliff, Jack Bedson, The Endless Playground: Celebrating Australian Childhood, page 16
    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.
    2021 September 6, “Australian farmers under pressure from climate change”, in Australian Herald‎
  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.
adverb
not comparable
1. (Australia) Towards the direction of the outback.

bush⁴

/bʊʃ/

adjective
comparative more bush, superlative most bush
1. (colloquial) Not skilled; not professional; not major league.
noun
1. (baseball) Amateurish behavior, short for "bush league behavior"

bush⁵

/bʊʃ/

noun
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.
verb
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.

Definition of "bush"

bush1

noun

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verb

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bush2

noun

bush3

noun

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adverb

bush4

adjective

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bush5

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verb

bush¹

bush²

bush³

bush⁴

bush⁵