beat about the bush
Dance around it
To beat about the bush is to avoid getting to the point, circling around a topic rather than addressing it directly: Stop beating about the bush and tell me what happened.
The image comes from hunting, where beaters would thrash bushes to flush out game.
Also beat around the bush, especially in American English.
- prevaricateSpeak misleadingly to deceive
- pussyfootAct evasively or stealthily
- equivocateSpeak vaguely to mislead
- hem and hawSpeak evasively, delay deciding
- stallEnclosed compartment or delay
hedge · fudge · temporize · play for time · drag one's feet · indirectness · digress · fence · evade · couch · circumlocution · mislead · non-committal · dodge · weasel · delay tactics · shuffle · waffle
directness of communication
beat about the bushget to the point
Speak directly now
speak plainly · cut to the chase · lay it on the line · tell it like it is · call a spade a spade
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