beat around the bush

1. 1.

   be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information

   Synonymsequivocatetergiversateprevaricatepalter

   Broadermisinform

Questions about beat around the bush

What does beat around the bush mean?

beat around the bush means "be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information".

What is another word for beat around the bush?

Close synonyms include equivocate, tergiversate, prevaricate, palter. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is beat around the bush a common word?

beat around the bush is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.