Brushy

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈbɹʌʃi/

Definitions

1. Covered in or densely populated with shrubs or similar foliage
2. Resembling a thick or abundant growth of vegetation, often used to describe hair or fur textures
3. Characterized by an abundance of small woody plants densely covering an area ; having a coarse or prickly surface texture similar to bristles

Etymology: "Brushy" is a plain formation: the noun "brush" with the adjective-forming suffix "-y", which in Old English was "-ig" and came to mean "full of" or "having the qualities of." So a brushy field is one full of brush, and a brushy chin is one bristling like a brush. The noun underneath has a longer journey. "Brush" came into English in the Middle Ages from Old French "broisse," which in turn came from a Vulgar Latin word "brustia," probably connected to the Frankish "burstī" for bristles. The Latin and Frankish forms trace back to a Germanic root meaning bristle, which is why the older sense of "brush" was closer to a bundle of bristles than to a thicket. The shrub sense developed later, as brush came to describe tangled undergrowth.

Synonyms: bushy, thick, brushlike, shrubby, woody

Antonyms: bare, empty, smooth, clean, uncovered