Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus.) the first ‘laugh’ issued by the kookaburra to signal dawn.

2022

in D. Andrew Aussie Sl.

(US) a rabbit.

1941

O. Stanley ‘Negro Speech of E. Texas’ in AS XVI:1 16: Go in the woods and get you a bush-bacon. That’s a rabbit.

(mainly Aus./N.Z.) one who has either no religion or belongs to a dubious sub-cult.

1908		Truth (Sydney) 15 Feb. 6: I am a solictor and likewise a bush baptist [DNZE].
1914		R. Tressell Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1955) 154: ‘I’m a Bush Baptist!’ he shouted [...] This confession of faith caused a fresh outburst of hilarity, because of course everyone knew what a Bush Baptist was.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 June 21/2: [A] fellow who looked like a bullock-driver turned bush Baptist.
1933		A.E. Strong in Partridge Sl. Today and Yesterday 287: Good job I’m a bush baptist; I can please myself as to what rank I parade with.
1941		Baker N.Z. Sl.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 231/1: bush baptist – a person whose religious belief is questionable.
1969		D. Acheson Present at the Creation 234: Ernie burst into laughter and threw up his arms in mock despair. ‘I wouldn’t know,’ he said. ‘I’m only a bush Baptist.’.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 90: I’m what we call a bush baptist now [...] I don’t need a church to pray in.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 126: Bush apes and bushrangers were there to have a go at picking the pockets of the bush baptists and bush lawyers.
1988		McGill Dict. Kiwi Sl. 24/1: bush baptist religious fundamentalist or religious poseur.
2002		Cooper Family Home Page ‘Aus. Idiom and Sl.’ 🌐 bush baptist n. or adj. Slang Person of indeterminate religious persuasion.

(Aus./N.Z.) a second-rate or amateur carpenter.

1913		Wollondilly Press (NSW) 6 Dec. 2/6: Moreover the whole thing can be made by the veriest bush carpenter.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 5: Most of us were ‘bush carpenters,’ so the job was right into our hands.
1924		Mercury (Hobart, Tas.) 25 June 4/6: Many of them [i.e. ‘returned diggers’] are asked to pay for homes, the construction of which would bring tears to the eyes of the roughest bush carpenter in existence.
1930		Bowen Indep. (Qld) 8 Feb. 7/4: Rabbitrles can be constructed easily by the roughest bush carpenter.
1935		Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 26 Nov. 15/4: . A number of carpenters were available, but there was a shortage when really skilled men were required. A ‘carpenter’ had been defined as ‘a man who used a hammer and a saw’ — that was, in effect, a ‘bush carpenter,’ [...] However, such men were of little practical use to the home builder.
1944		Age (Melbourne) 14 Oct. 2/3: Plans for the Improvement of post!-war technical training for wood-working trades [...] indicate that the term ‘bush carpenter,’ where it implies a slip-shod worker ignorant of, the finer points of his craft, should be in very little evidence in future.
1959		Baker Drum.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 171: All drongos, no-hopers, wowsers and bush carpenters.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 24/1: bush carpenter self-taught or rough and ready carpenter.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

(Aus./N.Z.) a mixture of methylated spirits and salt.

1975		K. Willey Ghosts of the Big Country 4: His beverages were rum and ‘bush champagne’, [...] which consisted of a pannikin of methylated spirits mixed with riverwater and a spoonful of sal volatile.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 39: bush champagne Meths and salt. ANZ.

(S.Afr.) a derog. description (by black students) of a segregated, blacks-only college or university.

1976		A. Brink Mapmakers (1983) 140: The ‘black’ universities, where libraries are under strict control and students constantly surveilled by Security Police, and where academic qualifications are often secondary to political convictions, are generally referred to as ‘Bush Colleges’.
1988		G. Mokae in Pace Apr. 62: When the Medical University of Southern Africa (Me-dunsa) was started in 1978, cynics saw it as another political still birth of apartheid [...] a ‘bush college’ [DSAE].
1992		New Nation 7 Aug. 9: The process of transforming South Africa’s black universities once disparagingly referred to as bush colleges is proceeding with vigour [DSAE].

(N.Z.) a damp sack or teatowel with its edges soaking in cold water, placed over a tin of food to keep it cool.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 39: bush fridge Damp sack or teatowel over the tin of food, the edges soaking in cold water. ANZ.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) one who claims to ‘lay down the law’, but has no real authority to do so; also attrib.

1835		Index to Reports of Cases Supreme Court State of N.J. 782: bush lawyer Admissiable in justice’s court [...] Cannot recover for pleading suits.
1835		True Colonist (Hobart) 4 Sept. 7/4: The able oratory of the bush lawyer, whose time of servitude, in one of the worst of Mr O’Connor’s gangs, expired last week [AND].
1840		Tasmanian Weekly Dispatch (Hobart) 11 Sept. 6/3: Another forgery was produced ... bearing the indorsement of John Hodsol, the celebrated bush lawyer [AND].
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 16 June 2/6: Don’t be so sure fo that, Mr Bush Lawyer.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 June 3/3: Jeames [...] commenced a sopecies of bush-lawyer cross-examination.
1853		Guardian (Hobart) 19 Feb. 3/3: The witness was sharply examined by the prisoner, who is somewhat of a ‘Bush Lawyer’ [AND].
1869		Argus (Melbourne) 11 Sept. (Supplement) 2/2: He established a sod-hut house of accommodation near the market reserve, hired out horses to inspecting visitors, practised as a bush lawyer [AND].
1881		J.C.F. Johnson Mount Browne and Bach 13: An ‘Adelaide man’, who happened to be a bit of a bush lawyer, was getting the best of an argument [AND].
1896		H.G.Turner Lecture on J.P.Fawkner n.p.: For some years he cultivated and developed his capacity for rhetorical argument by practising in the minor courts of law in Tasmania as a paid advocate, a position which in those days, and under the exceptional circumstances of the Colony, was not restricted to members of the legal profession, and the term bush lawyer probably takes its origin from the practice of this period.
1901		W.S. Walker In the Blood 221: You’ve got your head screwed on right-oh, Doctor. I though I was a bit of a bush lawyer myself, but you take the cake.
1926		J. Doone Timely Tips For New Australians 16: BUSH-LAWYER.—A man who gratuitously voices legal opinions although possessing no qualifications for doing so.
1933		(ref. to 1890–1910) L.G.D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (1951) 366: Bush Lawyer – Argumentative, agitating workman.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 212: I’ve had all the bush lawyers and all the bush Somonons talking to me.
1966		G. Barry Bed and Bored 11: James examined the pass with the eye of a bush lawyer.
1971		F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 203: He’s a good little fella, even if he is the greatest bloody know-all bush lawyer that ever poked a nose into other people’s business.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 126: Bush apes and bushrangers were there to have a go at picking the pockets of the bush baptists and bush lawyers.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 24/1: bush lawyer unqualified practitioner of the law or argumentative legalistic type.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Bush lawyer. Prisoner with reputation for giving amateur legal advice and known to argue the point. Can be a useful resource or a source of irritation depending on your point of view.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] I was becoming a bush lawyer. I was also becoming an authority on prison issues.

see separate entries.

(N.Z.) an amateur, untrained mechanic.

1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 24/1: bush mechanic rough and ready, unqualified mechanic.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 39: bush mechanic Amateur and untrained mechanic.