Beat around the Bush
A preschool relative visited our family years ago. She used my mother’s perfume without permission. When Mom asked what she had done, Kim beat around the bush. Over and over she responded, “I’m just tired.”
When we don’t want to say something, we may beat around the bush.
Ways we do that include:
- Avoid a discussion or a question, as Kim did
- Waste time talking about something else
- Delay the discussion or our response
- Answer cautiously, giving little information
- Offer misleading information
To beat around the bush referred originally to bird hunts.
The Phrase Finder explains, “In bird hunts some of the participants roused the birds by beating the bushes.” Therefore, beating around or “‘beating about the bush’ was the preamble to the main event, which was the capturing of the birds.” According to The Free Dictionary, “Not to go directly to such foliage but to work around it instead gave the impression of wasting time or not trying very hard to raise the birds.”
Beating around the bush may cause a tangled web of trouble.
If we fail to speak honestly and clearly, we risk harming ourselves or others. Minor issues may not matter. However, important issues demand our best response.
May our words, as well as our actions, always follow the straight and narrow.
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone (Colossians 4:6 NIV).
Thanks to Brad Leverett for the suggestion.
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