How to Use bushwhack in a Sentence

bushwhack

verb
  • The group bushwhacked through the jungle.
  • They used the controversy as an opportunity to bushwhack their political opponents.
  • This new one will bushwhack a path into the woods and pamper your ass on a run to the mall.
    — David Beard, Car and Driver, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Over the next three days, the group would bushwhack miles up side canyons looking for birds, beavers, bugs and more.
    — Elise Schmelzer, Denver Post, 7 June 2026
  • On the fifth day of bushwhacking, Ernest-Beck lost his helmet.
    — Corbin Reiff, Outside Online, 22 Oct. 2024
  • Your hands need to bushwhack, grip onto sturdy trees, and point out the soaring eagle ahead.
    — Danielle Bernabe, Fortune, 29 May 2021
  • Bob and Sarah had to bushwhack around numerous logs across the trail or cut them with handsaws.
    — Cindy Chojnacky, idahostatesman, 30 Oct. 2017
  • The trail requires a fair amount of bushwhacking, steep climbs, and snaking ambles through multi-hued canyons.
    — Wendy Altschuler, Forbes.com, 16 June 2025
  • In a few sections, the trail can be tough to find, making bushwhacking necessary.
    — Wendy Altschuler, Forbes.com, 8 Apr. 2025
  • The wreckage is accessible via an unmaintained trail, so plan to bushwhack to the site.
    — Nicole Blanchard, Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Another route to the plane is bushwhacking from Duck Lake Trail.
    — Nicole Blanchard, Idaho Statesman, 31 Jan. 2024
  • And the Freedmen’s Bureau had radical lawyers who bushwhacked it.
    — Anna Deavere Smith, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2023
  • While bushwhacking through hellish yew thickets, the sling kept twisting and finally unscrewed the swivel stud.
    — John B. Snow, Outdoor Life, 14 Feb. 2020
  • Getting to climbing rocks required bushwhacking through dense brush, and some smaller rocks were hard to spot, hidden behind the plant life.
    — Maura Fox, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2023
  • Cassens and Groot were among scores of volunteer searchers who had bushwhacked for days, looking for the elderly couple.
    — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Or simply study the terrain and bushwhack them along a ridge spine or other terrain funnel, without ever making a call.
    — Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 8 May 2020
  • Sometimes the brothers would have to bushwhack up the sides of peaks, and then scramble through boulder fields and up unmarked terrain to reach the summit.
    — Outside, 25 Sep. 2025
  • The best hiking pants earn their place in our packing list the hard way—through scree scrambles, sweaty switchbacks, and the kind of bushwhacking that tests each and every seam.
    — Jessica Chapel, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Mar. 2026
  • The green pins are regular ranger patrols—known as Mamba teams—six rangers to a team, bushwhacking through the park on five-day rotations.
    — David Quammen, National Geographic, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Three years ago, the county created a team to bushwhack through a thicket of bureaucracy to get the jail closed and the inmates diverted.
    — Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2024
  • But their grueling three-hour journey of uphill bushwhacking in the rain ended in disappointment.
    — Shi En Kim, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Oct. 2024
  • Instead, Aslan bushwhacks his way through intellectual history in pursuit of his point.
    — Emma Green, New York Times, 19 Dec. 2017
  • The Ducks figure to be in an ornery mood after getting bushwhacked Saturday night at Arizona State.
    — oregonlive, 24 Nov. 2019
  • After bushwhacking through uncultivated wilderness, the ground team found the woman, the Coast Guard said.
    — Emily Mae Czachor, CBS News, 11 Dec. 2024
  • After about an hour of following bushwhacking guides and slipping over an elephant trail twisting through the undergrowth, trumpets and guttural grunts pierced through the silence.
    — Chris Schalkx, AFAR Media, 20 Aug. 2025
  • That means hikers are sometimes required to bushwhack to get to waypoints such as the summit of El Cajon Mountain east of Lakeside.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Mar. 2021
  • The first Europeans arrived in 1493, when Columbus bushwhacked onto the island’s shores.
    — Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, 15 July 2024
  • Flylow also included an internal beacon pocket in the leg, adding utility for backcountry skiers who already plan to bushwhack through deadfall in search of untouched powder.
    — Nick Cote, Outside Online, 28 Apr. 2019
  • Even if a suggestive cluster of Maya community buildings and a fort popped up on a future lidar map, archaeologists would still have to bushwhack there to excavate them.
    — Lizzie Wade, Science | AAAS, 5 Sep. 2019
  • Squeezing through slot canyons and bushwhacking through scrub oak provided some Outside Lab-style abrasive durability that didn’t even leave a mark on the nylon ripstop material.
    — The Editors, Outside, 31 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bushwhack.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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