the bushes
Hedges and shrubs
The bushes refers to shrubbery or undergrowth as a collective space rather than individual plants.
It typically suggests a place of concealment: The dog ran off into the bushes, Someone was hiding in the bushes.
The phrase often carries mild suspicion or furtiveness—witnesses peer from the bushes, suspects flee into them.
- brambleThorny wild shrub
- hidingStaying out of sight
- groveSmall stand of trees
- lurkingConcealed and watchful
- outbackRemote interior wilderness
out back · boondocks · off the beaten path · green · shrub · thicket · rustle · shade · crouching · hide and seek · backwoods · tangle · concealment · peeing · frontier · thorns · ambush · undergrowth
bush, bushes, bushy, bushed, shrubbery, underbrush, bushing, bushier, bushiness