dry brush
1
4.7
- noun
- US
:
matorral
- Ranchers often clear areas of dry brush to reduce the risk of wildfires during hot summers.
Well, they destroy all of the dry brush that's there.
- Well, they destroy all of the dry brush that's there.
Examples
-
In the desert, wildlife adapts to survive among the dry brush and sparse vegetation.
-
Well, they destroy all of the dry brush that's there.
-
I tossed it out the window, into the dry brush whistling by at the side of the highway, something dangerous and awful to do.
Fiction book (1992) -
The wildfire quickly spread through the dry brush, consuming everything in its path.
Synonyms
180
3.7
Wild land with many small trees and thick plants far from towns
61
2.2
A thick group of small trees and bushes
29
6.2
Low, thick bushes and small trees that grow on dry land
1
4.6
Land that has mostly bushes and very few trees
Antonyms
How Dense
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'dry' (lacking moisture or much paint) combined with 'brush' (the action or tool used to apply paint) yields the sense of applying paint with a barely-wet brush to create texture. This is a literal, productively built phrase following normal adjective+verb/tool patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the relevant senses of the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Dry brush is a plain description: dry plus brush (where 'brush' means low bushes) describes small, dry shrubs that grow in hot places and can be thin and scratchy. So the term now refers to low, dry undergrowth that can hide animals and burn easily.