Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who lives in the wilderness.
  • noun An outlaw living in the Australian bush.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who ranges through or dwells in the bush or woods; a bush-whacker; specifically, in Australia, a criminal, generally an escaped convict, who takes to the bush or woods and leads a predatory life.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who roams, or hides, among the bushes; especially, in Australia, an escaped criminal living in the bush.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Australia, historical A convict or outlaw who escapes to the bush to avoid capture; a roving bandit who lives in the bush.
  • noun Australia, obsolete A person skilled in bushcraft.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bush +‎ ranger.

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Examples

  • Becky, the servant, had utterly collapsed at the word bushranger; the other two faces looked as if carved in stone.

    Fifty-Two Stories For Girls 1888

  • The word bushranger struck terror into the hearts of all present, and even the jealous husband modulated his wrath, and rubbed his head with some degree of contentment.

    The Gold Hunters' Adventures Or, Life in Australia William Henry Thomes 1859

  • There is a romance to the word bushranger that the modern terms sociopath, or career criminal, just simply don't evoke, and in the 1860s our sleepy little region had its own bushranger:

    unknown title 2009

  • The Clarke Brothers were very thuggish and mean and roamed from Sydney to the Monaro note how I call it 'Canberra' when the bushranger is the less-violent and rather charming Jackey Jackey - who was really William Westwood and a forger - and "the Monaro" when referring to the leaders of a brutish gang.

    gillpolack: You need more bushrangers to vote for. gillpolack 2009

  • The Clarke Brothers were very thuggish and mean and roamed from Sydney to the Monaro note how I call it 'Canberra' when the bushranger is the less-violent and rather charming Jackey Jackey - who was really William Westwood and a forger - and "the Monaro" when referring to the leaders of a brutish gang.

    Even in a little thing gillpolack 2009

  • The posts they raised by the side of the western lakes and rivers, were so many videttes of that army of colonisers who have built up great commonwealths in that vast country, where the bushranger was the only

    Canada J. G. Bourinot

  • They will scatter in various directions if their force is small; and if large, why; a bushranger is a dangerous foe, and fights with a halter around his neck.

    The Gold Hunters' Adventures Or, Life in Australia William Henry Thomes 1859

  • Martin Cash, the bushranger of Van Diemen's land in 1843;: A personal narrative of his exploits in the bush and his experiences at Port Arthur and Norfolk Island by James Lester Burke

    OpEdNews - Quicklink: Hoyer: Obama unlikely to investigate torture 2009

  • Stories of a coked-out and boozed-up Dennis Hopper being pronounced legally dead while filming a local bushranger movie!

    Mark Hartley: Welcome to the Wild World of Ozploitation 2009

  • Martin Cash, the bushranger of Van Diemen's land in 1843;: A personal narrative of his exploits in the bush and his experiences at Port Arthur and Norfolk Island by James Lester Burke

    OpEdNews - Quicklink: Holder Admits Laws Violated: Now What Should Our Top Prosecutor Do When Laws Have Been Violated? 2009

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