etymologybush·whack (bshhwk, -wk)
v. bush·whacked, bush·whack·ing, bush·whacks
v.intr.
1. To make one's way through thick woods by cutting away bushes and branches.
2. To travel through or live in the woods.
3. To fight as a guerrilla in the woods.
v.tr.
To attack suddenly from a place of concealment; ambush. See Synonyms at ambush.
bushwhacker n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
usagebushwhacker
1809, Amer.Eng., lit. "one who beats the bushes" (to make his way through), perhaps modeled on Du. bosch-wachter "forest keeper." In American Civil War, "irregular who took to the woods" (1862), variously regarded as patriot guerillas or as freebooters.
I'm trying to reclaim the back forty, cutting down bushes with my Bushwhacker[tm]
mark whacking-bushes-not-bushwhacking