beat the bushes for

1. Look everywhere for something or someone, as in I've been beating the bushes for a substitute but haven't had any luck. This term originally alluded to hunting, when beaters were hired to flush birds out of the brush. [1400s] Also see beat around the bush.

Example Sentences

“If we’re really trying to beat the bushes for these really rare students with this exceptional sort of tenacity and resilience and promise, then we really don’t want to be missing large segments” of potential applicants, he said.

From Los Angeles Times

“We beat the bushes for them,” Belichick said.

From Washington Post

The party can beat the bushes for minority voters for Hillary but the only Democrats who are truly and organically enthusiastic for her appears to be the elderly.

From Washington Times

He said he’ll also have an opportunity to “beat the bushes for major funders and donors and new sources of revenue for the series,” he said.

From New York Times

To produce and direct his next film, a biography of the life of Indian pacifist leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, Attenborough beat the bushes for 20 years and redoubled his efforts only after Lean abandoned a similar project.

From Chicago Tribune