Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und./Aus.) poor, impoverished.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1827		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 10 June 989/3: ‘It is only a tiny bit of pewter [...] but it is the right sort of wedge which your Uncle will always pay respect to, and set a value upon it, if you should ever be bushed.
1842		Egan ‘The Bridle Cull’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 140: Then, my blades, when you’re bush’d, and must have the swag, / Walk into tattlers, shiners, and never fear the lag.

2. (orig. US) exhausted, tired out, as if one had been wandering, lost, through the woods.

1870		Nation July 57/1: To be ‘bushed’ was to be tired [DA].
1885		M.D. Woodward Checkered Years (1937) 27 Jan. 67: Walter owned, for once in his life, that he was nearly bushed.
1891		H. Lawson ‘On the Wallaby’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 135: For the bushman gets bushed in the streets of a town.
1899		H. Garland Boy Life on the Prairie 283: He’s about ‘bushed,’ but I guess he’ll hold out till supper.
1910		B.L. Bowen ‘Word-List From Western New York’ in DN III:vi 438: bushed, adj. Tired out; exhausted. Used especially during haying and harvesting of a man who succumbs to the heat, and is obliged to lie down and rest in the shade of a bush or tree. ‘John got bushed this afternoon.’.
1918		Boy’s Own Paper XL:5 253: They ain’t a-goin’ to find us bushed!
1929		(con. 1917–18) C. MacArthur War Bugs 176: You’re bushed.
c.1935		‘Charlie McCarthy in “Using a Wooden One”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 104: Am I bushed. But what a time.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 456: Don’t forget that I’ll be as bushed as any of you.
1959		S. Bellow Henderson The Rain King 133: I didn’t have the strength to take this leap. I was too bushed.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 80: I’m so bushed that one beer would probably put me flat on my face.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 119: I was pretty bushed.
1986		East Enders 25 Dec. [TV script] I’m bushed, it’s been a hell of a day.
1993		T. Winton Lockie Leonard: Scumbuster (1995) 142: ‘Are you OK, love’ said Mrs Leonard. ‘Just bushed, that’s all. Hmm, sleepy, sleepy.’.
2000		Hindu 4 Jan. 22: You felt bushed after watering the garden? You are getting old.
2008		T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 153: Crease was bushed thinking about who else’s hand might be in the jar.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 53: He really was bushed.
2023		D. Whish-Wilson I Am Already Dead 198: ‘I’m bushed. Let’s order takeaway’.

3. (Aus.) disorientated, lost (either lit. in the bush or generally so); thus fig. ‘lost’ (for ideas, words etc).

1881		Pall Mall Gaz. 24 Sept. 12/1: One black night John West was ‘bushed’ or lost.
1885		R.C. Praed Aus. Life 29: I get quite bushed in these streets.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Jan. 6/1: There are spots along that district where a drop of rain hasn’t fal-len since the Deluge, and if Billy got bushed on one of these he might take a little gin, and make himself a wee bit savage.
1887		‘Aus. Colloquialisms’ in All Year Round 30 July 68/1: ‘To be bushed’ [...] is applied to a person in any mental or physical difficulty or muddle.
1897		Bathhurst Free Press (NSW) 17 Aug. 3/3: Some of the rushers got bushed and camped for the night in the middle of a freezing lagoon.
1900		Wanganui Herald 12 Nov. 2: [headline] Bushed. Two men, Perkins and Francis, were lost in the bush at Herberton, and perished of thirst.
1903		‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 16 Aug. 1/4: [A] long slab of a man, bushed in his Sunday clothes, and only settled to. comfort when he had squatted down on his heels.
1905–6		(?) H. Lawson ‘Triangles of Life’ in Roderick (1972) 628: I [...] started out exploring on Monday morning [...] and struck out across country and got bushed, of course.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Sept. 24/1: ‘De Oriel’ [...] is completely bushed when he states that the beetles which reside near Mackay (N.Q.) and play havoc with sugarcane are 4 ½ inches long.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 107: Lost me tracks. Was fair bushed when Coonardoo found me.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Winter Feeding the Herd’ in Me And Gus (1977) 82: He said it would be dangerous for me to go without him; I was bound to get bushed.
1945		E. George Two at Daly Waters 89: There are no recognisable landmarks for the flyer who is bushed.
1957		J. Hawke Follow my Dust! 73: All right, blast it! Have the ruddy job. Take it on. Go and get bushed and perish for water.
1964		T. Ronan Packhorse and Pearling Boat 156: ‘We’ll have to go back now. We’re bushed.’ I was staggered. I’d never heard of an aboriginal being bushed, that is, lost.
1974		P. Adam-Smith Barcoo Salute 123: If you get bushed, sit down and light a fire. [...] We’ll find you in the morning.
1980		M. Bail Homesickness (1999) 302: Then I got bloody bushed in the subway on the way back.
2002		S. Maloney Something Fishy (2006) 123: You are not lost. You have merely paused to orientate yourself. Five minutes later, I conceded that I was utterly bushed.

4. (Aus.) drunk.

1914

Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Nov. 44/3: [Y]ou seemed to be talking a bit loud. And you were all wrong. So I said I would look after you. But you’re a hard doer; and in looking after you I got bushed myself.

5. in fig. use of sense 3.

1950

Courier Mail (Brisbane) 17 Apr. 2: You sometimes try to read these ‘answers’, but always get bushed among the pommy words I use.