bum's rush

noun

The forcible ejection of someone, such as a bum or a hobo, from an establishment.

Meanings

nounbum's rush (plural bum's rushes)

plural bum's rushes

  1. USidiomaticslangThe forcible ejection of someone, such as a bum or a hobo, from an establishment.

    At that point Duck got the bum’s rush from the organising Miss Bowen[.]

    1982, Paul Radley, My Blue-Checker Corker and Me, Sydney: Fontana/Collins, page 96
    4 more examples

    "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

    But suddenly he has a lucid interval . . . senses exactly what is going on. And he gives me this furious look. 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

Origin

* 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.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French course à l'échalote, débarquement
  • course à l'échaloteto be forcibly ejected
  • débarquementto be forcibly ejected
Cite this entry
APA

bum's rush. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bum's%20rush

MLA

“bum's rush.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bum's%20rush. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bum's rush,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bum's%20rush.

Source: bum's rush on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.