In another thread, a poster asked what the meaning of “bush league” was. I explained that it came from baseball and referred to teams in small towns, or as we say, “out in the bushes.” I was challenged on that by another poster who said “in the bushes” is an archaic term that no one uses anymore. So my question to you Dopers is, do you know what “out in the bushes” means and do you use the expression yourself?
The closest to that that I’ve heard, and even used, is “out in the sticks.” I have heard “bush league” and “in the boonies,” but not “in the bushes” in that context.
I’ve not heard that expression. We use “in the sticks”.
Boondocks, even ‘bush’, but ‘bushes’, nope.
All of these, plus “boondocks,” but never “in the bushes.”
As the above posters have said, I’ve never heard this use.
I’ve heard “in the sticks”, “in the boondocks”, “in the boonies” and maybe a few others, but even they aren’t really common.
Interesting. I’ve always used “in the bushes” to refer to some small place that’s barely a speck on the map. I’m taken aback by the replies so far. I’m a baseball fan from a very early age though, so that might be affecting my perception.
The term “bush league” is perfectly legitimate but I have never heard anybody say “in the bushes” to mean remote or uncultured. People will say “in the bush” to refer to actual wilderness area with bears and monkeys and shit, never “in the bushes”.
This. I’ll use “bush league” to about something amateurish, but never heard it in reference to rural towns. Sometimes referred to a person who is underperforming (he’s so bush league), but never a town.
We use “in the sticks, the boondocks, the boonies” instead.
But, I would refer to something as “bush league.” I’m old, so sue me.
We call parties outside of town in the middle of nowhere (usually someone’s field) a bush party, but I’ve never used “out in the bushes”. I usually refer to small places or rural areas as the boonies. I’ve heard the phrase bush league and understood the reference to a small town or rural setting.
Maybe it’s regional?
I’ve been aware of the term “bush league” and its connection to baseball since i was little, but never heard “the bushes” for small towns. That’s always boonies, etc.
I was raised in the Northeast.
In the boonies, in the boondocks, in the sticks, in Hicksville, in Bumfuck Egypt, in the middle of nowhere, …
Never once heard anyone use or even read “in the bushes” in this sense.
I’ve heard “the bush” used to refer specifically to the Australian outback and maybe also in reference to Africa.
Same as everyone else, I’ve heard “in the sticks”. Now, I have heard THE bush (singular), but that’s used to describe areas of Alaska that can only be reached by boat or plane, but even so the term is usually defined together, that is “Bush Alaska,” or by stores like Costco who advertise “we ship bulk to the bush”. The pilots (small planes) who fly into such areas are called bush pilots, and they’re a …colorful…bunch (think Brian Dennehy in “Never Cry Wolf”). 
Whoops, forgot to list my place of residence. I was raised in Alaska, and spent the majority of my life there (til now), but have also lived in the Pacific Northwest and California.
Maybe it’s just me? I’d always assumed that since I say it, other people say it, too. Oh well, it only shows what happens when you assume. I’m definitely having my ignorance fought today.
It may have been in Goodfellas or another mob movie, but when they were going to take a body out of town to bury it, they referred to “out in the weeds” or something like that. “Out in the woods” is another variation.
But for “small town” synonymy you might start at boondocks and branch out from there.
Crap. I voted “Yes: I don’t use it”, because I thought “out in the sticks” would be covered by the same phrase “in the bushes”.
Sorry.
I’ve heard “in the weeds” to refer to a project that has gone off track, but not to mean a remote location.
Or someone who is in over their head (the breakfast rush left the new waitress in the weeds).
Echoing others, no, I have not heard this expression. I would understand/use expressions like the sticks, the boonies, etc. And I would understand “bush league,” but it wouldn’t have the same connotation. “In the bush,” to me, would imply rural Australia or possibly the Serengeti.
If you told me a place was “out in the bushes,” I would, depending on context, either assume that it was literally in some shrubbery outside the building we were in, or that you were a non-native speaker who had mixed up your idioms.