bush

To search for someone or something exhaustively and at great length. I've been beating the bushes for a bigger apartment, but there's nothing out there I can afford!

Ruin or devastation. Unless you want to end up at beggar's bush, you better watch how much money you're spending.

An item of good quality needs no advertisement. Establishments like inns and pubs used to hang ivy and flowers to tell travelers that wine was available inside. The product I've invented is so excellent that it needs no ad campaign, just as good wine needs no bush.

With a vacant stare, often due to drunkenness. Ivy bushes were thought to be enjoyed by both owls and Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Whenever Rob drinks, he eventually looks like an owl in an ivy bush, gazing off into the distance at nothing.

Fig. to avoid answering a question; to stall; to waste time. Stop beating around the bush and answer my question. Let's stop beating about the bush and discuss this matter.

Prov. Having something for certain is better than the possibility of getting something better. I might get a better offer, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Bill has offered to buy my car for $3,000 cash. Someone else might pay more, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

Fig. awake and alert. (Often used ironically, as in the first example. The idea is that one is like a frisky animal, such as a squirrel.) Jill: Hi, Jane! How are you on this beautiful morning? Jane: Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, just as you might expect, since I've only had three hours of sleep. Despite the early hour, Dennis was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

[for a plant, bush, beard, head of hair] to develop many small branches or hairs. His beard bushed out and really needed trimming. I hope the hedge bushes out nicely this year.

to avoid talking about what is important Quit beating around the bush and tell me what you really think about my idea.

to search everywhere for someone or something We don't have to beat the bushes to get good photographs - they mostly come to us from photographers we know.

to avoid talking about a difficult or embarrassing subject because you are worried about upsetting the person you are talking to (usually negative) Don't beat around the bush. Just tell me where my brother is. There is no point in beating about the bush. I'm leaving you.

to try very hard to get or achieve something She's not out there beating the bushes for a job - she's just as happy not working.

not done to the usual or accepted standards His article was a bush league stunt to discredit the company, and he has apologized.

the way in which people quickly pass important information to other people, especially by talking News of the redundancies spread immediately on the bush telegraph.

Also, beat about the bush. Approach indirectly, in a roundabout way, or too cautiously. For example, Stop beating around the bush-get to the point. This term, first recorded in 1572, originally may have alluded to beating the bushes for game.

Look everywhere for something or someone, as in I've been beating the bushes for a substitute but haven't had any luck. This term originally alluded to hunting, when beaters were hired to flush birds out of the brush. [1400s] Also see beat around the bush.

A benefit available now is more valuable than some possibly larger future benefit. For example, Bob thinks he might do better in a bigger firm, but his wife insists he should stay, saying a bird in the hand . This expression, which in full is A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, was an ancient Greek proverb. It was well known in English by about 1400 and has been repeated so frequently that it is often shortened.

Eager and alert, as in Here is my new kindergarten class, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The allusion here is to the appearance of a squirrel, which with its beady eyes and bushy tail looks ready for anything. [1930s]

To make an exhaustive search.

To speak evasively or misleadingly, or to stall or waste time. To flush pheasants and other birds so they could be shot, British gamekeepers hired beaters who would swing sticks at likely places where the birds might be lurking. Not to go directly to such foliage but to work around it instead gave the impression of wasting time or not trying very hard to raise the birds; hence, beating around the bush.

Anything amateurish or otherwise below professional caliber. Baseball teams have been divided into two broad categories. Major league teams, also known as the big leagues, have the most professional players who play in state-of-the-art stadiums. Then there are minor league teams, composed of players on their way up or down the baseball ladder and ballparks that range in quality from almost-major league to close-to-sandlot. The latter fields, especially those in rural areas, weren't always enclosed by fences; instead they had shrubbery around their perimeters. Hence the phrase “bush league,” where the level of play was far from major league ability. The expression quickly spread to any endeavor that was less than expertly done.