beats around the bush
Speaks in circles
To beat around the bush is to avoid addressing something directly, approaching a topic through hints and evasions rather than stating your point plainly: Stop beating around the bush and tell me what happened.
The image is of a hunter disturbing the undergrowth near prey without ever flushing it into the open.
- hem and hawSpeak evasively, delay deciding
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
- talking in circlesRepetitive speech avoiding directness
- deflectionChange in trajectory
- euphemismMild substitute for bluntness
sugarcoat · evasion · sidestepping · vagueness · politeness · pussyfooting · misdirection · ambiguity · dodging · beat about the bush · obfuscation · equivocation · indirect approach · soft-pedal · stalling · hedging · walk on eggshells · digression
beats around the bushgets to the point
Addresses core matter directly
cuts to the chase · tells it like it is · calls a spade a spade · speaks one's mind · comes clean
beaten, beating, beats, beater, around, bushes, bushier, bushiest