Phrase guide

bush out

verb · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

verb

Meaning 1

To be bushy; to protrude in a thick tuft.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To become bushy; to grow into the form of a thick tuft.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: intransitive

Examples

  • Removing the shoots on the side of the plant will encourage it to grow upward instead of bushing out.
  • 1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, Part 4, “Voyages To and About the Southerne America,” Chapter 13, p. 1481, [They] deformed their children with laying one boord on the fore-head, and another in the necke [...] to make them broad-faced, shauing away the haire of the crowne and necke, and letting it growe on the sides, making it curle and bush out to more monstrositie.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To cause (something) to protrude in a thick tuft.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • 1763, George Colman, Terrae-Filius, Number 3, 7 July, 1763, in Prose on Several Occasions, London: T. Cadel, 1787, p. 249, Mr. FOLIO [...] waited in his gold laced hat with a handkerchief of Mrs. FOLIO’s about his ears, till the return of his wig, properly bushed out and powdered,

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

verb

Meaning 4

grow outward

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • the plant quickly bushed out

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: expand, spread out

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.