underbrush

English

Etymology

under- +‎ brush

Noun

underbrush (usually uncountable, plural underbrushes)

1. The small trees and other plants that clutter the floor of a forest.
   • 1892, Stanley Waterloo, A Man and a Woman:

     How quick the eye and hand to catch him [the ruffed grouse] when he rises from the underbrush and is out of sight in the wood before the untrained sportsman stops him with what is little more than a snapshot, so instantaneously must all be done!

Synonyms

• underbush
• undergrowth
• understory

Translations

small trees

• Bulgarian: шубрак (bg) m (šubrak), горски храсти m pl (gorski hrasti)
• Catalan: malesa (ca) f, sotabosc (ca) m
• Czech: podrost (cs) m
• Finnish: aluskasvillisuus (fi)
• French: sous-bois (fr) m
• German: Unterholz (de) n
• Greek:

  Ancient: ῥώψ f (rhṓps)

• Japanese: 下生え (したばえ, shitabae)
• Russian: подле́сок (ru) m (podlésok)
• Swedish: snårskog c, undervegetation c

Verb

underbrush (third-person singular simple present underbrushes, present participle underbrushing, simple past and past participle underbrushed)

1. (transitive) To clear (an area) of underbrush.
2. (intransitive) To work among the underbrush.

Anagrams

• undershrub