shrub
English · Thesaurus
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shrub¹
- /ˈʃɹʌb/
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʌb]
- /ˈʃɹʊb/ Ireland, Northern England
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʊb] Ireland, Northern England
Rhymes with -ʌb
Where it comes from
From Middle English schrub, schrob, (also unassibilated as scrub), from Old English *sċrob (in placenames) and sċrybb (“a shrub; shrubbery; underbrush”); akin to Norwegian skrubbe (“the dwarf cornel tree”). Doublet of scrub.
noun shrubs
-
A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base.
No trees have grown on the windswept Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean for tens of thousands of years — just shrubs and other low-lying vegetation. That’s why a recent arboreal discovery nearly 20 feet (6 meters) beneath the ground caught researchers’ attention.
Similar: bush
verb shrubs · shrubbing · shrubbed
- To lop; to prune. The Papistes[…]though they be woll shrubbed, and shred, yet they begin euen nowe before the springe, to budde.
- To plant a shrub in a yard, garden, etc.; to prune a bush or other plant into a shrub.
shrub²
- /ˈʃɹʌb/
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʌb]
- /ˈʃɹʊb/ Ireland, Northern England
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʊb] Ireland, Northern England
Rhymes with -ʌb
Where it comes from
From Arabic شِرَاب (širāb, “a drink, beverage”), شَرِبَ (šariba, “to drink”), akin to syrup, sherbet, and sorbet.
noun shrubs
- A liquor composed of vegetable acid, fruit juice (especially lemon), sugar, sometimes vinegar, and a small amount of spirit as a preservative. Modern shrub is usually non-alcoholic, but in earlier times it was often mixed with a substantial amount of spirit such as brandy or rum, thus making it a liqueur.
verb shrubs · shrubbing · shrubbed
- To make or drink a shrub (liquor drink).
shrub³
- /ˈʃɹʌb/
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʌb]
- /ˈʃɹʊb/ Ireland, Northern England
- [ˈʃʰɹʷʊb] Ireland, Northern England
Rhymes with -ʌb
Where it comes from
Of unknown origin. First attested in the 2000s.
Chiefly used in respect to English or Swahili pronounced in a manner characteristic of another Kenyan language.
verb shrubs · shrubbing · shrubbed
- To mispronounce (a word or words) in another language in a manner that is influenced by one's mother tongue. The people who benefit from making fun of shrubbing, therefore, are Kenyans who do not speak indigenous languages, because they are less likely to shrub than Kenyans who learned English as a second language in school and may have a heavier accent.
noun shrubs
- A word mispronounced by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation as influenced by one's mother tongue. It is not only in face-to-face contexts that Kenyans police shrubbing; there are newspaper columns inviting readers to send in shrubs that they have witnessed, […]
Shrub⁴
Where it comes from
A play on his surname Bush, a shrub being a smaller bush, thus indicating that he is the junior Bush in relation to his father George H. W. Bush. Popularized by American newspaper columnist Molly Ivins (1944–2007), who co-wrote Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (2000) with Lou Dubose.
proper noun
- George W. Bush (born 1946), the 43rd president of the United States (2001–2009). Ann Richards [...] is running for reelection as Governor of Texas against George W. Bush, a Republican and the eldest son of the former President. […] She derides him as “all hat and no cattle.” […] Her followers hand out bumper stickers saying: “Don't elect the son-of-a-Bush.” They call him “Shrub.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: bush, vegetation, tree, thicket, evergreen, shrubbery, scandent, carr, brush, scrub, bushes, undergrowth, underbrush, gorse, chaparral, woody plant
Translations
Every language
noun woody plant
| Español | mata, arbusto |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 관목 gwanmok |
| 日本語 | 低木 teiboku |
| 中文 | 灌木 guànmù, 灌木叢 /灌木丛 guànmùcóng |
| हिन्दी | झाड़ी jhāṛī |
| Kiswahili | miraa |
| Português | arbusto, moita |
| Français | arbrisseau, arbuste |
| Deutsch | Busch, Strauch |
| Italiano | arbusto |
| Ελληνικά | θάμνος thámnos |
| Română | arbust, tufă |
| Русский | куста́рник kustárnik, куст kust |
| Tiếng Việt | cây nhỏ, cây bụi, bụi cây |
| العربية | شُجَيْرَة šujayra |
| עברית | שִׂיחַ síaẖ |
Talk about this word "shrub." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shrub. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. shrub. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shrub "shrub." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shrub.Cite this
@misc{shrub_2026,
title = {shrub},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shrub},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
