A shrub or branch, properly, a branch of ivy (as sacred to Bacchus), hung out at vintners' doors, or as a tavern sign; hence, a tavern sign, and symbolically, the tavern itself
If you tell someone not to beat about the bush, you mean that you want them to tell you something immediately and quickly, rather than in a complicated, indirect way. Stop beating about the bush. What's he done?. The 41st President of the United States (1989-1993). He was previously U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1971-1972) and China (1974-1975), director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1976-1977), and Vice President (1981-1989) under Ronald Reagan. American electrical engineer and physicist who designed (1928) the differential analyzer, an early computer, and directed the World War II effort to develop the first atomic bomb. butterfly bush Bush George Herbert Walker Bush George Walker Bush Vannevar