▪ I. bushwhacking, vbl. n. U.S.
(ˈbʊʃˌhwækɪŋ)
1. Making one's way through bushes; esp. the pulling of a boat by means of the bushes along the margin of a stream.
| 1826 T. Flint Recoll. Miss. Valley 86 A process, which, in the technics of the boatmen [of the Mississippi] is called bush-whacking. 1828 ― Hist. & Geog. Miss. Valley (Bartlett) The propelling power of the keel-boat is by oars, sails, setting-poles, the cordelle, and..bush-whacking, or pulling up by the bushes. |
2. The making of the woods a basis of operations for fighting or deeds of violence; bush-fighting.
| 1864 Daily Tel. 23 Aug. An unimportant bushwhacking foray. 1880 Scribner's Monthly XXI. Dec. 301 Forbes underwent four months of bushwhacking with the Carlists. |
3. Felling or clearing bush (with an axe). N.Z.
| 1906 E. W. Elkington Adrift in N.Z. xvi. 262 Bush-felling, or, as it is termed, bush-whacking was a favourite pastime of mine. 1907 W. H. Koebel Return of Joe 287 You new chums cuttin' good terbacker as if you was bush-wackin'. 1930 W. Smyth Wooden Rails iii. 39 Don't you like saw-mills and bush whacking and all that? |
▪ II. ˈbushˌwhacking, ppl. a.
That bushwhacks.
| 1883 American VI. 92 The scouting, bushwhacking Unionist, Fortner. |