Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎯 To ambush 🌳 To clear a path 🏞️ To hide out
to bushwhack

to bushwhack

1 8.6
To make a path through thick bushes by cutting or pushing them aside
  • verb
  • /ˈbʊʃˌhwæk/
  • Informal
translation icon : abrir camino
  • They had to bushwhack their way; no one had returned in twenty-five years.
  • bushwhacked our way
  • bushwhacked a new trail

It's time to level up from the Amazon to the amadong with the ultimate bushwhacking tools.

Examples

  • The explorers had to bushwhack their way through the thick undergrowth to reach the hidden waterfall.

  • As they bushwhacked through the dense forest, they cleared a path for the others to follow.

  • But if we bushwhack, we cut at least a day off the trek.

    Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004)

  • So let's bushwhack our way out front and trust that the others will bring up the rear as we all forge ahead.

    Blog text (31)

  • And along the same lines, it's beneficial when bushwhacking since the line of sight through the woods is much more open.

    Blog text (20)

  • The next morning, the group was bushwhacking its way up Mount Kasigau.

    Academic text (2005)

  • "They bushwhacked along the creek, treading a thick, soft mixture of moss, humus, and needles, climbing upward through brush.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • With no trail to guide them, the hikers decided to bushwhack their way to the summit of the mountain.

Synonyms

to plough one's way through
vsto bushwhack
  • UK
1 7.4

To move forward with difficulty through people or things with effort

does the same but specifically by cutting or forcing through thick vegetation
to tramp through the woods
vsto bushwhack
1 6.0

To walk for a long time through the woods, often slowly and with effort

is about moving through dense undergrowth using cutting or physical force
to bullrush through
vsto bushwhack
  • UK
8.9

Move quickly through a crowd while pushing people aside

involves forcing a path through thick vegetation rather than through people

Antonyms

to avoid
∞ 1.0

To stay away from something or not do it to stop something bad from happening

How Difficult

to bushwhack
  • Informal
1 8.6

Surface Forms

bushwhack infinitive
bushwhacked past
bushwhacked past participle
bushwhacking present participle
bushwhacks third person singular

Morphology

bushwhack = bush + whack (transparent) = bush + whack

Literally 'to whack through bushes'—the action of cutting or forcing a way through vegetation follows directly from the compound parts.

Etymology

Bushwhack puts together bush ('thick plants or woods') and whack ('to cut or chop'), like cutting branches as you go through the trees. So, to bushwhack can also mean to force your way through dense woods by cutting or pushing through the plants.