Definition
A removable cylindrical sleeve, usually made of metal, fitted into a hole or bore to provide a smooth, wear-resistant surface for a shaft, bolt, or pin to pass through or rotate within. A bushing protects the surrounding parent material from wear and can be replaced when worn, rather than replacing the whole component.
Plain English
A small sleeve that lines a hole so a bolt or shaft can move through it cleanly, and so the hole itself doesn't wear out. When the sleeve gets worn, you replace just the sleeve.
Context Anchor
Seen in aircraft maintenance around hinges, control connections, landing gear parts, engine mounts, and other places where one part turns, slides, or is held in position inside another.
Derivation
From the Middle Dutch 'busse' meaning a box or tube. The same root gives us 'bush' in the mechanical sense -- a tubular lining. Knowing this helps separate it from the unrelated everyday meaning of bushing as 'shrubbery.'
Why Pilots Care
Worn bushings introduce play in controls or cause vibration in rotating parts, affecting handling precision and safety margins.
Analogy
A bushing is like the plastic sleeve inside a cheap hinge or wheel: the sleeve takes the rubbing and helps the moving part stay centered, instead of letting the main structure wear away.
Intuition Check
Do not confuse a bushing with a bush or shrub. In aircraft maintenance, a bushing is a small fitted sleeve that protects, supports, or spaces mechanical parts.
Example Sentence 1
The mechanic found a worn bushing in the rudder hinge and replaced it before returning the aircraft to service.
Example Sentence 2
Excessive play in the rudder pedals was traced to a deteriorated bushing in the control linkage.