Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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About this entry:
First published 1941 (SND Vol. II). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

BUSH, n.¹ See also Busk, n., and Buss, n.¹ Corresponds in form and meaning to St.Eng. bush, but with special extensions not found in St.Eng. [bʌʃ]

1. Low-growing shrubs such as heather, or herbaceous plants growing in a clump, nettles, ferns, etc. (Cai.⁷, Bnff.², Abd.⁹, Fif.¹⁰, Kcb.⁹ 1937).Sc. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxv.:
The oppressors that hae driven me to tak the heather bush for a bield.

2. “A clump of trees” (Sc. 1902 W. S. Crockett Scott Country 193); a wood.Sc. 1929 Sc. Notes and Queries VII. No. 7 128:
An advertisement in The Times of 20th February 1809, announcing a sale of the fir wood in the Forest of Aboyne, known as “My Lord's Bush,” is interesting.Mry. 1751 Gordon Castle MSS. (25 Sept.): 
The firr woods divided by the Forester to the Severall Bushes of the same. . . . A bush of Firr wood of the young wood of Badinlie.

3. Proverbial use:Sc. 1737 Ramsay Proverbs 17:
Every Man bows to the Bush he gets Bield frae.

4. Comb.: bush sparrow, “the hedge sparrow, Accentor modularis” (Slg. 1885 C. Swainson Brit. Birds 28). Also used in U.S.A., but applied there to Spizella pusilla. Cf. bussparrow, s.v. Buss, n.¹