beat the bushes
English · Thesaurus
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beat the bushes
Where it comes from
Both beat the bushes and scare up have figurative senses, referring to traversing the landscape seeking difficult-to-find things, that arose by extension from their senses referring to driving game out of the bush when hunting.
verb beats the bushes · beating the bushes · beat the bushes · beaten the bushes
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Synonym of pound the pavement (“to campaign diligently; to seek something”).
They started beating the bushes in search of a commercially available solvent that would aid their manufacturing but wouldn't be too horribly toxic and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg.
Similar: pound the pavement
Talk about this word "beat the bushes." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/beat%20the%20bushes. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. beat the bushes. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/beat%20the%20bushes "beat the bushes." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/beat%20the%20bushes.Cite this
@misc{beat_the_bushes_2026,
title = {beat the bushes},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/beat%20the%20bushes},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
