Word.ws English Dictionary

bum's rush

bum's rush noun: the forcible ejection of someone, such as a bum or a hobo, from an establishment.

Noun

bum's rush (plural bum's rushes)

  1. (US, idiomatic, slang) The forcible ejection of someone, such as a bum or a hobo, from an establishment.
    • "I didnt' think you fellows'd put the bum's rush onto me," he complained, "I ain't no bum."1911 March, Wm. Hamilton Osborne, “Blowing the Crowd”, in Ambition: A Journal of Inspiration to Self Help, volume 9, number 8
    • It seems that the board appointed to look into alleged shortcomings of leftish Council leaders didn't like the "observers" who were brought along and decided to give them the bum's rush.1948, Daily Labor Report - Issues 181-210, page 326

Examples of bum's rush in a sentence

  • Astonishes me by saying, with all the old force, in his old, frightening growl: “This is a bum's rush!”2013, Chris Crowley, Jennifer Sacheck, Thinner This Year: A Younger Next Year Book:
  • Early last September, some fellow beekeepers reported that the females in their bee colonies had already given the bum's rush to the males, the drones, kicking them out in the cold.2013, Jack Mingo, Bees Make the Best Pets, page 81:

Forms of bum's rush

pluralbum's rushes

Origin of bum's rush

* First use appears c. 1911. See cite below. * Although Baumes law has been suggested as the origin, bum's rush was in use more than a decade before that law was passed.

Questions about bum's rush

What does bum's rush mean?
Bum's rush means the forcible ejection of someone, such as a bum or a hobo, from an establishment.
How do you use bum's rush in a sentence?
Astonishes me by saying, with all the old force, in his old, frightening growl: “This is a bum's rush!”
What part of speech is bum's rush?
Bum's rush is a noun.
What is the plural of bum's rush?
The plural of bum's rush is bum's rushes.

Words near bum's rush in the dictionary

  1. bum steers
  2. bum trip
  3. bum trips
  4. bum wine
  5. bum wines
  6. bum's rush
  7. bum's rushes
  8. bum-breathing
  9. bum-bum
  10. bum-bums
  11. bum-clock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bum's rush (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bum's rush.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bum's rush.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bum%27s_rush. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.