U.S. [f. BUSH sb.1 + WHACKER, one who ‘whacks’ or beats. (Cf. also Du. bosch-wachter, forest-keeper.)]
lit. One who whacks or beats bushes; hence,
1. One accustomed to beat about or make his way through bushes; a backwoodsman, a bush-ranger.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb., VI. v. (1849), 342. They were gallant bush-whackers and hunters of racoons by moon-light.
2. Applied in the American Civil War to irregular combatants who took to the woods, and were variously regarded as patriot guerillas, or as bush-rangers and banditti; a bush-fighter.
1862. Macm. Mag., June, 141. Of banditti, or bush-whackers … we say nothing.
1866. J. E. Skinner, After Storm, I. 240. Neither bushwhackers or slaves were seen in the streets.
3. A scythe or other implement used to cut away brushwood.
1841. J. Dow, jr., Serm., xxii. 55 (Bartlett). I know not the victim soon destined to fall before his keen-edged bushwhacker [i.e., time].
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., iv. 81. He is a graduate of the plough, and the stub-hoe, and the bushwhacker.
Hence Bushwhackerism.
1863. Daily Press (Nebraska City), 12 Sept., 2/2. What dreadful things Copperheadism and Bushwhackerism are everybody knows.
1883. American, VI. 356. The ‘border ruffianism’ and the ‘bushwhackerism’ which disgraced Missouri.
