For forms see sb. [f. BUSH sb.1]
† 1. trans. To set in a bush or thicket as a place of concealment, to place in ambush; intr. (for refl.) to hide in a bush, lie in ambush. (Cf. BUSH sb.1 4.) Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 187. Saladyn priuely was bussed beside þe flom.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1168. Lurkyt vnder lefesals loget with vines, Busket vndur bankes on bourders with-oute.
c. 1440. York Myst., XIII. 8. I may nowder buske ne belde But owther in frith or felde.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., II. (1520), 11. Coryn sholde go out and busshe hym in a wode.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot. (1858), I. 263. The Pechtis than wes buschit neir hand by.
1623. Daniel, Hymen’s Tri., II. i. Being closely bush’d a pretty Distance off.
2. To protect (trees, etc.) with bushes or cut brushwood set round about; to support with bushes.
1647. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp. Canterb., Paid for bushes to bush the ashes in the meadowe vjd.
1676. Worlidge, Cider (1691), 34. Care must be taken to bush them, so that cattel may not rub against them.
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, III. 416. Let the Sets be bushed about for some time, to prevent their being injured.
1884. [see BUSHED 2 b].
3. To protect (land or game) from net-poachers by placing bushes or branches at intervals in the preserved ground, so as to interrupt the sweep of a net. Also absol.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., 288. Assist us still better to bush the partridges. Ibid., IV. viii. (1872), 254. Game-preserving Aristocracies, let them ‘bush’ never so effectually, cannot escape the Subtle Fowler.
1860. Chamb. Jrnl., XIV. 274/2. As for netting by night, bush your fields closely.
1883. J. Purves, in Contemp. Rev., Sept., 355. They know the fields to avoid for net-work, those that have been bushed—i.e., irregularly dotted with posts driven upright into the ground.
4. To bush-harrow (ground, etc.); to cover in (seed) with a bush-harrow.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 313. Sow the clover seed, which bush in, by the horses walking in the furrows.
1848. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., IX. I. 10. By attention to the spreading and bushing the field the whole surface becomes … changed.
5. See quot.; cf. bush-draining in BUSH sb.1 11.
1838. New Monthly Mag., LIII. 32. They might hae thocht of bushing the tent-pegs…. This is done, on the approach of heavy rain, by digging a hole near each tent-peg, and filling it with brushwood, to act as a sort of drain and prevent the water from saturating the ground, and making the pegs draw.
6. To tether a horse by burying the knotted end of the head-rope in the ground.
1871. Daily News, 11 Sept., 6/1. The system of ‘bushing,’ by which the officers’ horses of the 9th Lancers are now fastened.
7. intr. To be bushy, to grow thick like a bush.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 133 a. It [wilde Thyme] busheth largely, and groweth somthyng asyde.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 426. So thick the Roses bushing round About her glowd.
1809. Parkins, Culpepper’s Eng. Physic. Enl., 257. Greyish or whitish leaves … many bushing together at a joint.
b. transf. of hair. Also with out.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 159. Their heare out bushing as a foxes tayle.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 844. My heyr bussheth So plesauntlie.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Falconrie, 369. The dogge becommes more beautifull by cutting the toppe of his sterne: for then will it bushe out verie gallantly.
† c. of the ‘tail’ of a comet. Obs.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1314/1. There appeared a blasing star in the south, bushing toward the east.
† 8. To bush about or out: ? to beat or hunt about for (as for game). Cf. BUSK v.2 2.
1686. (3 June) MS. Let. from Job Charnock & Council of Húgli to Council at Balasore. Wee take notice that you can Procure us about 20mds [maunds] of Wax, pray bushe out for some more.
a. 1734. North, Life Ld. Guilford (1742), 201. They are forced to bush about for ways and means to pay their rent and charges.
