different between flower vs bush

English

Alternative forms

• flowre (obsolete)

Etymology 1

From Middle English flour, from Anglo-Norman flur, from Latin fl?rem, accusative of fl?s, from Proto-Indo-European *b?leh?- (“to thrive, bloom”). Doublet of flour.

Partially displaced Middle English blosme, blossem (“flower; blossom”) (see blossom).

Pronunciation

• (UK)
• (US)
• Rhymes: -a?.?(r), -a??(r)
• Homophone: flour (for people who pronounce flower as one syllable, or flour as two)

Noun

flower (plural flowers)

1. A colorful, conspicuous structure associated with angiosperms, frequently scented and attracting various insects, and which may or may not be used for sexual reproduction.
2. (botany) A reproductive structure in angiosperms (flowering plants), often conspicuously colourful and typically including sepals, petals, and either or both stamens and/or a pistil.
   • 1894, H. G. Wells, The Flowering of the Strange Orchid

     You know, Darwin studied their fertilisation, and showed that the whole structure of an ordinary orchid flower was contrived in order that moths might carry the pollen from plant to plant.

3. A plant that bears flowers, especially a plant that is small and lacks wood.

4. (usually with in) Of plants, a state of bearing blooms.

5. (euphemistic, hypocoristic) The vulva, especially the labia majora.
6. The best examples or representatives of a group.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     The choice and flower of all things profitable the Psalms do more briefly contain.

   • 1808, Robert Southey, Chronicle of the Cid, from the Spanish

     the flower of the chivalry of all Spain

   • 1915, Katharine Tynan, The Golden Boy

     In times of peace, so clean and bright, / And with a new-washed morning face, / He walked Pall Mall, a goodly sight, / The finished flower of all the race.

7. The best state of things; the prime.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Lady Clara Vere de Vere

     A simple maiden in her flower / Is worth a hundred coats of arms.

8. (obsolete) Flour.
   • 1730, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments

     The Flowers of Grains, mixed with Water, will make a sort of Glue.

9. (in the plural, chemistry, obsolete) A substance in the form of a powder, especially when condensed from sublimation.

10. A figure of speech; an ornament of style.
11. (printing) Ornamental type used chiefly for borders around pages, cards, etc.
    • 1841, William Savage, A Dictionary of the Art of Printing

      I pointed out to the late Mr. Catherwood , of the firm of Caslon and Catherwood , the inconvenience of both these modes of cutting flowers

12. (in the plural) Menstrual discharges.

Usage notes

In its most common sense as "a colorful conspicuous structure", the word flower includes many structures which are not anatomically flowers in the botanical sense. Sunflowers and daisies, for example, are structurally clusters of many small flowers that together appear to be a single flower (a capitulum, a form of pseudanthium), but these are considered to be flowers in the general sense. Likewise, the botanical definition of flower includes many structures that would not be considered a flower by the average person, such as the catkins of a willow tree or the downy flowers found atop a cattail stalk.

Synonyms

• (inflorescence that resembles a flower): head, pseudanthium
• (best examples): cream
• (best state of things): prime

Translations

Verb

flower (third-person singular simple present flowers, present participle flowering, simple past and past participle flowered)

1. (intransitive) To put forth blooms.

   This plant flowers in June.

2. (transitive) To decorate with pictures of flowers.
3. (intransitive) To reach a state of full development or achievement.

   • when flowr'd my youthful spring

   • 1940 Mahadev Desai, translator, Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography, Part III (IX) Simple Life, original published 1927-1929

     It only needed watering to take root, to flower and to fructify, and the watering came in due course.
4. (archaic, intransitive) To froth; to ferment gently, as new beer.
5. (intransitive) To come off as flowers by sublimation.

Synonyms

• (to put forth blooms): bloom, blossom
• (reach a state of achievement): flourish

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

• Appendix:Flowers
• Category:Flowers

Etymology 2

flow +? -er

Alternative forms

• flow-er

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?fl???/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?flo??/

Noun

flower (plural flowers)

1. (rare) Something that flows, such as a river.
   • 1886–1890, J. D. Rees, Narratives of Tours in India, page 340:

     Leaving the weavers’ village behind you, and crossing the sandy bed of the Vengavati or ‘Swift-flower,’ which, however, contained not a drop of water, you reach the ancient Jain temple.

   • 1888, John T. White, The Seventh Book of Cæsar’s Gallic War with a Vocabulary, page 224:

     Rh?d?nus, i, m. The Rhodanus (now Rhone); a river of Gaul [prob. a northern word, meaning “Swift-flower or Swift-passer”].

   • 1893, Arthur A. MacDonnell, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, page 340:

     sará-yu, f. [swift flower: ?sri] N. of a river (in Oudh), in C. gnly. û.

   • 1959, Scottish Studies, volumes 3–4, page 92:

     one that flows with force and speed; the fast flower

   • 2019, Radio Times Crossword, 24 August:

     Bonnie partner with Scottish flower (5) [as a clue for CLYDE]

Usage notes

• The term is used with this meaning almost exclusively in cryptic crossword clues where it means river.

Anagrams

• Fowler, Wolfer, flowre, fowler, reflow, wolfer

Cebuano

Noun

flower

1. someone who is allowed to participate in games but cannot become it; usually a younger sibling of a player who may or may not fully grasp the mechanics of the game
2. (mahjong) a flower or season tile
3. (mahjong) the act of declaring and revealing a flower or season tile and in order drawing a replacement tile

Middle English

Noun

flower

1. Alternative form of flour

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle English bush, from Old English bus?, *bys? (“copse, grove, scrub”, in placenames), from Proto-West Germanic *busk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, thicket”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *b?uH- (“to grow”).

Cognate with West Frisian bosk (“forest”), Dutch bos (“forest”), German Busch (“bush”), Danish and Norwegian busk (“bush, shrub”), Swedish buske (“bush, shrub”), Persian ????? (biše, “woods”). Latin and Romance forms (Latin boscus, Occitan bòsc, French bois and buisson, Italian bosco and boscaglia, Spanish bosque, Portuguese bosque) derive from the Germanic. The sense 'pubic hair' was first attested in 1745.

Noun

bush (plural bushes)

1. (horticulture) A woody plant distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, being usually less than six metres tall; a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category.
2. A shrub cut off, or a shrublike branch of a tree.

3. (historical) A shrub or branch, properly, a branch of ivy (sacred to Bacchus), hung out at vintners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and symbolically, the tavern itself.
4. (slang, vulgar) A person's pubic hair, especially a woman's.
   • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs Of Fanny Hill, Gutenberg eBook #25305,

     As he stood on one side, unbuttoning his waistcoat and breeches, her fat brawny thighs hung down, and the whole greasy landscape lay fairly open to my view; a wide open mouthed gap, overshaded with a grizzly bush, seemed held out like a beggar?s wallet for its provision.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 787:

     But no, the little pool of semen was there, proof positive, with droplets caught hanging in her bush.

5. (hunting) The tail, or brush, of a fox.

Synonyms

• (category of woody plant): shrub
• See also Thesaurus:pubic hair

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bush (third-person singular simple present bushes, present participle bushing, simple past and past participle bushed)

1. (intransitive) To branch thickly in the manner of a bush.
   • 1726, Homer, Alexander Pope (translator), The Odyssey, 1839, Samuel Johnson (editor), The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Esq., page 404,

     Around it, and above, for ever green, / The bushing alders form'd a shady scene.

2. To set bushes for; to support with bushes.

   to bush peas

3. To use a bush harrow on (land), for covering seeds sown; to harrow with a bush.

   to bush a piece of land; to bush seeds into the ground

4. To become bushy (often used with up).

   I can tell when my cat is upset because he'll bush up his tail.

Etymology 2

From the sign of a bush usually employed to indicate such places.

Noun

bush (plural bushes)

1. (archaic) A tavern or wine merchant.

Derived terms

• good wine needs no bush

Etymology 3

From older Dutch bosch (modern bos (“wood, forest”)), first appearing in the Dutch colonies to designate an uncleared district of a colony, and thence adopted in British colonies as bush. Could alternatively be interpreted as a semantic loan, as bush (etymology 1) is cognate to the aforementioned archaic Dutch bosch.

Noun

bush (countable and uncountable, plural bushes)

1. (often with "the") Tracts of land covered in natural vegetation that are largely undeveloped and uncultivated.
   1. (Australia) The countryside area of Australia that is less arid and less remote than the outback; loosely, areas of natural flora even within conurbations.
      • 1894, Henry Lawson, We Called Him “Ally” for Short, Short Stories in Prose and Verse, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0607911,

        I remember, about five years ago, I was greatly annoyed by a ghost, while doing a job of fencing in the bush between here and Perth.

      • 1899, Ethel C. Pedley, Dot and the Kangaroo, Gutenberg Australia eBook #0900681h,

        Little Dot had lost her way in the bush.

      • 2000, Robert Holden, Paul Cliff, Jack Bedson, The Endless Playground: Celebrating Australian Childhood, page 16,

        The theme of children lost in the bush is a well-worked one in Australian art and literature.

   2. (New Zealand) An area of New Zealand covered in forest, especially native forest.
   3. (Canada) The wild forested areas of Canada; upcountry.
2. (Canada) A woodlot or bluff on a farm.

Derived terms

Related terms

• bushman (not derived from bush but separately derived from cognate Dutch)

Translations

Descendants

• ? Dutch: bush, bushbush

See also

• backblock, outback

Adverb

bush (not comparable)

1. (Australia) Towards the direction of the outback.

   On hatching, the chicks scramble to the surface and head bush on their own.

Etymology 4

Back-formation from bush league.

Adjective

bush (comparative more bush, superlative most bush)

1. (colloquial) Not skilled; not professional; not major league.

   They're supposed to be a major league team, but so far they've been bush.

Noun

bush

1. (baseball) Amateurish behavior, short for "bush league behavior"

Etymology 5

From Middle Dutch busse (“box; wheel bushing”), from Proto-West Germanic *buhs?. More at box.

Noun

bush (plural bushes)

1. A thick washer or hollow cylinder of metal.
2. A mechanical attachment, usually a metallic socket with a screw thread, such as the mechanism by which a camera is attached to a tripod stand.
3. A piece of copper, screwed into a gun, through which the venthole is bored.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Farrow to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (washer or cylinder): bushing

Related terms

• reducing bush

Verb

bush (third-person singular simple present bushes, present participle bushing, simple past and past participle bushed)

1. (transitive) To furnish with a bush or lining.

   to bush a pivot hole

Anagrams

• Shub, hubs

Albanian

Alternative forms

• bushk

Etymology 1

Either borrowed through Vulgar Latin from Latin buxus, or from Proto-Indo-European *b?uH (“to grow”) (compare Dutch bos (“woods”), English bush).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu?/

Noun

bush m (indefinite plural bushe, definite singular bushi, definite plural bushet)

1. (botany) boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)

Derived terms

• bushtë
• bushnjesh
• bushk

Etymology 2

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *b?uH (“to grow”).

Noun

bush m (indefinite plural busha, definite singular bushi, definite plural bushat)

1. a mythological monster

Declension

Derived terms

• bushtër

Related terms

• bisht

References

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• bushu, bushtu

Etymology

Compare Romanian bu?.

Noun

bush m (plural bush) or n (plural bushi/bushe)

1. fist

Synonyms

• shub, pulmu, huftã, mãnatã

Burushaski

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bu?]

Noun

bush (plural bushongo)

1. cat

See also

• gus bush
• hir bush
• bushe isko

References

Sadaf Munshi (2015) , “Word Lists”, in Burushaski Language Documentation Project?^[1].

Middle English

Alternative forms

• buss, bosh, buish, boish, busk, bosk

Etymology

From Old English busc, bysc, from Proto-West Germanic *busk. Cognates include Middle Dutch bosch, busch, Middle High German busch, bosch, and also Old French bois, buisson.

Noun

bush (plural bushes)

1. bush (low-lying plant)

Descendants

• English: bush
• Scots: bus
• Yola: bushe

References

• “bush, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.