这个短语的字面解释是“击打周围的灌木丛”，这是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: I’m sorry that I haven’t got the time to show you around the city. I’ve been especially busy this last week.

    B: Let’s stop beating about the bush and discuss this matter.

    Note: This idiom means to “speak evasively or misleadingly, or to stall or waste time.” Usually expressed in British English as “beat about the bush,” the phrase evolved from the earlier literal meaning. In bird hunts some of the participants roused the birds by beating the bushes and enabling others to “cut to the chase” and catch the quarry in nets. So “beating about the bush” was the preamble to the main event, which was the capturing of the birds.