beat around the bush

andarse con rodeos

• Stop beating around the bush — just tell me what's wrong.
• She beat around the bush for ten minutes before finally asking for a raise.
• Instead of beating around the bush, he immediately addressed the issue at hand.

This idiom is used in informal and everyday situations, often when someone is frustrated by indirect answers. It is common in spoken language but can also appear in informal writing.

Spanish speakers might mistakenly say 'beat around the bush' with an incorrect preposition, such as 'beat about the bush', which is less common and might sound odd to some English speakers.

• see eye to eye (with someone)
  estar de acuerdo, coincidir plenamente
• on the fence
  indeciso, sin decidirse
• the elephant in the room
  el elefante en la habitación, lo evidente que nadie menciona
• the tip of the iceberg
  la punta del iceberg