# Do you say, "In the bushes" to refer to small towns? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 22, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754 "2012-05-22T20:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/41 "2012-05-23T06:25:51Z")
I’ve heard it, but I assumed it was just one of those odd hick-isms that are usually a perversion of a real saying. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/42 "2012-05-23T19:15:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Sticks, boonies, boofoo, boofoo Egypt, BF Egypt, BFE, buttfuck nowhere, buttfuck Egypt, bumblefuck are the expressions I’m familiar with. Never heard of “out in the bushes.” You forgot EAST Buttf_ck, Egypt. Or just East Buttf_ck. (10 years and I still don’t know where I can and can’t curse.) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/43 "2012-05-23T19:18:27Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > You forgot EAST Buttf_ck, Egypt. Or just East Buttf_ck. > > (10 years and I still don’t know where I can and can’t curse.) There’s no rule about cursing. Only about insulting. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/44 "2012-05-23T19:49:04Z")
'm not familiar with its use. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/45 "2012-05-25T14:45:02Z")
I agree that “the bush” or “the bushes” to refer to a rural area is archaic. The spin-off of “bush league” for minor league baseball, and by extension for anything that is less than first-rate, is however alive and well and definitely _not_ archaic. It’s like when _All in the Family_ went off the air but _The Jeffersons_ was still going. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/46 "2012-05-25T15:41:35Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > Never heard that. We say ‘the boonies’, ‘the wop wops’ or ‘back of beyond’. Wop wops? Is that a common phrase on Mars? ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/47 "2012-05-25T16:25:31Z")
Yep, never heard it. “In the sticks” means wayyy outside of town, but does NOT specifically refer to a small town in and of itself. e.g., Manassas Virginia is “in the sticks” to a D.C. urban dweller. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/48 "2012-05-26T00:49:52Z")
I say “out in the boonies”, I’m quite familiar with “out in the sticks” though don’t normally say it, “out in the bushes” is unfamiliar. However, comparing it to “bush league” it doesn’t seem like it’d be a particularly odd term, just not one used in these parts. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/49 "2012-05-26T01:11:50Z")
Another vote for “out in the toolies.” I’ve read that expression came from the _tule_ plant, or weed, that was prevalent in Central California, once upon a time. Central California is practically all cropland now. Not a tule in sight! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/50 "2012-05-26T10:29:59Z")
Boonies, boondocks, sticks, out in the country, middle of nowhere, sure…never heard “in the bushes”. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/51 "2012-05-28T01:08:01Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > Wop wops? Is that a common phrase on Mars? Assuming she’s Australian the phrase is usually written “woop woop”, and you’d never say “the woop woops”, more like “she’s from woop woop”. BTW the “woop” does not rhyme with “hoop”, I’m having trouble finding an English rhyme for it actually as the ‘oo’ is pronounced somewhere between ‘wop’ and ‘hoop’. Maybe ‘wüp’ ? ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754/52 "2012-05-28T01:21:42Z")
I’m Canadian and I’ve never heard small, remote towns referred to as ‘in the bushes’. ‘Out in the bush’ would likely be someone describing a camping trip in the wilderness, or the house I lived in out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees and Canadian shield landscaping. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-say-in-the-bushes-to-refer-to-small-towns/622754.md?page=2)