Definition
Synonym of pound the pavement (“to campaign diligently; to seek something”).
Origins
Both beat the bushes and scare up have figurative senses, referring to traversing the landscape seeking difficult-to-find things, that arose by extension from their senses referring to driving game out of the bush when hunting.
In Context
- "They started beating the bushes in search of a commercially available solvent that would aid their manufacturing but wouldn't be too horribly toxic and wouldn't cost an arm and a leg."
Also Said As
See Also
- beat around the bush
- scare up