U.S.
1. Making one’s way through bushes; esp. the pulling of a boat by means of the bushes along the margin of a stream.
1826. T. Flint, Recoll. Miss. Valley, 86. A process, which, in the technics of the boatmen [of the Mississippi], is called ‘bush-whacking.’ Ibid. (1828), Hist. Geog. Miss. Valley, I. 230 (Bartlett). Its [the keel boat’s] propelling power is by oars, sails, setting poles, cordelle, and … ‘bush-whacking,’ or pulling up by the bushes.
2. The making of the woods a basis of operations for fighting or deeds of violence; bush-fighting.
1820. Olive Branch, 5 May, 6/1. This bushwhacking is unnecessary.
1864. Daily Tel., 23 Aug., 5/1. The new Maryland raid seemed to be dwindling into an unimportant bushwhacking foray.
1880. Kate Field, in Scribner’s Monthly, XXI. Dec., 301/2. Forbes underwent four months of bushwhacking with the Carlists.
