Meaning & use
beat around the bush
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Meaning
phraseidiominformal
To talk around a subject without reaching the main point, usually because you are nervous or reluctant to say something unwelcome.
Grammar: Changes form like the verb beat: she beat around the bush, he is beating around the bush. The British variant is beat about the bush.
Patterns
- stop beating around the bush
- beat around the bush about something
Stop beating around the bush and tell me whether I got the job.
He beat around the bush for ten minutes before admitting he had lost my book.
I will not beat around the bush: the project is behind schedule.
Word forms
| third person singular | beats around the bush |
|---|---|
| past tense | beat around the bush |
| past participle | beaten around the bush |
| -ing form | beating around the bush |
Common combinations
- stop beating around the bush
- Stop beating around the bush and give me a straight answer.
- without beating around the bush
- She told them the news without beating around the bush.
- not one to beat around the bush
- My aunt is not one to beat around the bush when she disapproves.
- quit beating around the bush
- Quit beating around the bush; what do you really want?
- beat around the bush about it
- There is no point in beating around the bush about the cost.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hedge
- Hedge means to avoid committing yourself to a clear answer, while beat around the bush is about avoiding the subject itself.
- prevaricate
- Prevaricate is a formal word for being evasive, often by lying a little, and it is much stronger than the casual idiom.
- dodge the question
- Dodge the question describes refusing to answer directly, whereas beating around the bush may just be nervous rambling.
- equivocate
- Equivocate is a formal word for using vague language to avoid being pinned down, and it sounds more deliberate than the idiom.
Opposites
Word family
- beat about the bush phrase
- the British variant of the idiom
- beat verb
- the verb at the heart of the idiom
- bushes noun
- plural of bush, the shrubs in the image
Commonly confused: beat around the bush or beat the bushes?
beat around the bush vs beat the bushes
To beat the bushes means to search hard for people or things, which is quite different from avoiding the point.
Practice
Rather than ___, the doctor explained the diagnosis clearly and kindly.
Choose one answer.
Beating around the bush means avoiding the main point, and the sentence contrasts this with being clear. The other idioms are real but have different meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “beat around the bush”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.