Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Small trees or shrubs growing beneath the taller trees in a forest, especially when thick or tangled.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Shrubs and small trees growing under large trees in a wood or forest; brush; undergrowth.
- To work in the underbrush, as in cutting and clearing; clear away underbrush from.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Shrubs, small trees, and the like, in a wood or forest, growing beneath large trees; undergrowth.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The small trees and other plants that clutter the floor of a forest.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the brush (small trees and bushes and ferns etc.) growing beneath taller trees in a wood or forest
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Back early part of December, you've had House and Senate staff starting to meet Democratic staff, starting to thrash out what they call the underbrush -- sort of the easier parts of these Bills where most of the things were the same.
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It knocked down so many trees that the underbrush is now so thick you can hardly get in the woods.
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It knocked down so many trees that the underbrush is now so thick you can hardly get in the woods.
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In a bee-line, through the underbrush, which is peculiarly dense, very thorny, and very aggressive in that locality, a full half hour was necessary.
Les Miserables 2008
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Is religion just an extension of the valid suspicion that any rustling in the underbrush could be a beast coming to eat you?
Jeff Dorchen: Study Proves Other People Are Even Worse Than We Thought 2008
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Lost in the underbrush is the reality that the architecture of FISA was shaped not only to protect the privacy of Americans but also to give the White House considerable latitude in pursuing time-urgent opportunities.
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In order to preserve these forest-trees, the underbrush, which is liable to make a conflagration in a dry season, should be removed generally, and the view of the great features be left unimpeded.
Our Italy Charles Dudley Warner 1864
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In a bee-line, through the underbrush, which is peculiarly dense, very thorny, and very aggressive in that locality, a full half hour was necessary.
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In a bee-line, through the underbrush, which is peculiarly dense, very thorny, and very aggressive in that locality, a full half hour was necessary.
Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1843
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Careful studies of silt prove beyond doubt that its primal cause is the removal of the forest cover, such as underbrush, weeds, and grasses, along the streams, which allows the rainfall to run off rapidly.
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