Etymology

good wine needs no bush

Today it means: There is no need to boast or advertise about something of good quality. Full definition →

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The story

First recorded in the epilogue to As You Like It by William Shakespeare: "If it be true, that good wine needs no bush, ’tis true, that a good play needes no Epilogue." Here, the term bush denotes a branch or bunch of ivy formerly hung as a vintner’s sign in front of a tavern.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.