To bushwhack is to push or cut your way through thick trees and bushes where there is no path. Branches hit your face; you use your arms, a stick, or a small blade; progress is slow. Hikers say it when the trail has disappeared. The word sounds American: bush plus whack, to hit hard. Though actually, it has a darker older use in American history. To bushwhack someone was to attack them from the trees, by surprise. A bushwhacker was a fighter who hid in the woods, especially in the American Civil War. You may still meet that meaning in a history class. In everyday talk now, bushwhack is usually the “cut through plants” verb, not the ambush. It is a real word, not a joke made by sticking bush and whack together at the table.