bushwhack

English

Etymology

From bush +‎ whack.

Verb

bushwhack (third-person singular simple present bushwhacks, present participle bushwhacking, simple past and past participle bushwhacked)

1. To travel through thick wooded country, cutting away scrub to make progress.
   • 1990 August, Boyd Gibbons, “Missouri's Garden of Consequence”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 131:

     For hours we bushwhack through a study section of Jatun Sacha in search of Minquartia, sliding down muddy draws.

2. To fight, as a guerrilla, especially in wooded country.
3. To ambush.

Related terms

• bushwhacking
• bushwhacker

Translations

to travel through thick wooded country

• Finnish: raivautua
• German: sich durchs Dickicht schlagen