What Does It Mean? If you take forever to make your point, you are beating around the bush. This usually happens when attempting to make a difficult statement or request. Where Does It Come From? Another not-very-nice one from the medieval era, this phrase is said to come from hunting, where hunters would literally beat bushes to scare birds and other animals out from hiding to be shot and killed. So what relevance does this have to the phrase as we know it today? Well... anything big, scary and dangerous could have been hiding in those bushes, depending on the size of said bush. Some cautious huntsmen, instead of giving the bush a big old whack, would gingerly beat around it for fear of what might happen, or indeed emerge, if they hit it too hard. Ta-da...
Stephanie is a writer and free spirit who likes to pretend she's a Londoner, though strictly speaking she's from Watford. She likes books, music, elephants, and hairspray.
