Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to ambush, to attack without warning; lit. and fig.; thus bushwhacking n. and adj.

1813		Mass. Spy 27 Jan. n.p.: These bush-whacking Yankees won’t do.
1845		Congressional Globe 3 Feb. 152: All Mr. Foster asked for was a clear field and a fair fight — no bush-whacking, if he might be indulged in an expressive word, well understood in the border wars of the West.
1866		C.H. Smith Bill Arp 116: The Confederate cavalry can fight ’em, and dog ’em, and dodge ’em, and bushwhack ’em, and bedevil ’em, for a thousand years.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 21: Texas [...] was unhappily unaware that the war was over, and continued a career of bushwhacking and lawlessness.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 63: All we has to do is [...] make a camp; an’ by bein’ slow an’ shore, an’ takin’ time an’ pains, we bushwhacks an’ kills the last one.
1907		W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 244: When I heard shooting I thought it was you they had bush-wacked.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 187: You laid among the trees an’ bushwhacked him.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 111: Bushwhackin’ is too prevalent around here.
1945		Botkin Lay My Burden Down 133: There was a lot of bushwhacking all through that country by little groups of men.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 36: What he was afraid of most was that they’d bushwhack him.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 37/2: Bushwhack. To assault suddenly from ambush, especially in ‘lover’s lane’ holdups or purse-snatchings.
1960		(con. WWII) G. Sire Deathmakers 279: Slimy bastards [...] Put up white flags and then bushwack us.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 167: What followed [...] was an unconscionable bushwhacking.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 287: He was bushwhacked by a hissing demon which leapt on his back and bit him in the neck.
1982		M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 76: I’d just wait and bushwhack you some dark night.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 426: They had Cohen and Goldman bushwhacked in prison.
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 25: Nor do I appreciate being bushwhacked like this.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 156: Inbred fuckin maniacs bushwhackin people.
2005		Jackson Hole News (WY) 14 Dec. 74/1: George and Laura [Bush] literally were ‘bushwhacked’ by [...] their ultraconservative religious sidekicks and supporters.

2. (US) to seek out, to discover surreptitiously.

1897

A.H. Lewis Wolfville 28: Yesterday, allowin’ to bushwhack some trooth about ’em, I waits till old Wilkins drifts over to the corral, an’ then I goes projectin’ ’round for facts. I works it plenty cunnin’.

3. (US) to hide.

1897

A.H. Lewis Wolfville 331: Crawfish prances into camp on this yere occasion with Julius [i.e. a pet snake] bushwacked ’way ’round back in his shirt.

4. to borrow without permission; the theory is that such items will eventually be returned, but the term (and the action) is virtually synon. with stealing.

1914

J.C. Ruppenthal ‘A Word-List From Kansas’ in DN IV:ii 104: bushwhack, v. To ‘borrow’ with intent to return. ‘Somebody bushwhacked my plow.’.

5. (US campus) to have sexual intercourse in a field or wood.

1918		J.M. Grider War Birds (1926) 49: One of the boys came in the other night without his Sam Browne belt. He was last seen walking down the street with a girl and he had it on then. So everybody got to kidding him about bushwacking.
1943		Yank 17 Sept. 21: We were bushwhacking in the off-limit weeds [HDAS].

6. (US) to beat up.

1925

D. Hammett ‘Corkscrew’ Story Omnibus (1966) 227: Ain’t we going to bushwhack them waddies none?

7. (US campus) to spy and sneak up on courting couples in automobiles.

1958		J. Davis College Vocab. 13: Bushwhacking – Searching out parked couples and scaring them.
1970		D. Wakefield Going All the Way 84: Bushwhacking [...] sneaking up on some poor couple making out and then flashing a goddamn spotlight on them.

8. to trick, to deceive.

1957		H. Ellison ‘We Take Care of Our Dead’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 59: You just bushwhacked him into gettin’ full of cop slugs.
1986		S. King It (1987) 623: For the first time since the dirty bitch had bushwhacked him and run out, Tom began to feel good.