bushwhacker
/ˈbʊʃwakə
/noun
1North American & Australian /NZ A person who clears land in bush country.
1.1A person who lives or travels in bush country.The Cedar Surf is about surf shacks, back roads, bushwhackers, hitchhikers and squatters in the rainforest isolation in and around Tofino, Ucluelet and Jordan River, where surfing beaches are crowded with sea lions, not people....
- Bushman - used from the 1820s - was a term of honour, connoting mastery of a harsh environment; but bushy and bushwhacker - which gained currency late in the century - suggested awkwardness and rustic innocence.
- Alpinists and skiers (or bushwhackers, for that matter) need flexible packs that move with the body, which means a minimal frame - just a pair of stays, really.
2US A guerrilla fighter (originally in the American Civil War).During the war, he learned the guerrilla tactics of the bushwhackers, jayhawkers and other insurgency groups who tried, by any means, to halt the progress of Union forces....
- James, with the help of newspaper editors such as John Edwards, was cast in a political role, as Confederate guerilla, a bushwhacker, enemy of Grant and the corrupt Union.
- More important has been the second traditional source - the collected, cataloged, and often published accounts of the Union soldiers whom bushwhackers targeted and tormented.