hustle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈhʌsəl/
rhymes: -ʌsəl
Forms: form: hustles
form: hustling
form: hustled
form: hustled
Etymology: From Dutch husselen or by metathesis from Dutch hutselen (“to shake up”), a frequentative of hutsen (“to stir, to move something (back and forth)”).
Senses: examples: text: There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.[…]Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.
ref: 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle.
examples: text: I'll have to hustle to get there on time.
text: Men in dairy lunches were hustling to gulp down the food which cooks had hustled to fry
ref: 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 12, in Babbitt:
glosses: To rush or hurry.
examples: text: There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.
ref: 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit:
glosses: To bundle; to stow something quickly.
examples: text: The guy tried to hustle me into buying into a bogus real estate deal.
glosses: To con, swindle, or deceive, especially financially.
glosses: To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge one.
glosses: To obtain by illicit or forceful action.
glosses: To sell sex; to work as a pimp.
examples: text: All my life, been hustling / And tonight is my appraisal / 'Cause I'm a hooker selling songs / And my pimp's a record label
ref: 2018, Brendon Urie, Michael Angelakos, Sam Hollander, Morgan Kibby, Jake Sinclair, Dillon Francis, “Hey Look Ma, I Made It”, in Pray for the Wicked, performed by Panic! at the Disco:
glosses: To be a prostitute; to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.
examples: text: When I was in Morocco I wrote this play ("Playland Blues") about young kids who […] hustle old gay men and closet queens.
ref: 1976 February 14, Tommi Avicolli, Miguel Pinero, “Miguel Pinero: Prisoner, Playwright, God”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 33, page 9:
glosses: To serve (a clientele) as a prostitute.
glosses: To dance the hustle, a disco dance.
glosses: To work.
examples: text: Frazier and Gary worked for me for free -- for six months -- they didn't take any money from the house. They worked for tips. They both had other jobs, and they came in here and they hustled their ass.
ref: 1977 August 27, Steve Savage, Susan "Suki" Eagan, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Suki, But Were Too Distracted In Chaps to Ask Her”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 8, page 9:
glosses: To put a lot of effort into one's work.
Synonyms: sense: to rush
word: fly
word: make tracks
word: rush
sense: to deceive
word: defraud
word: swindle
word: deceive
sense: to be a prostitute
word: sell one's body
word: turn tricks
word: prostitute oneself
sense: to work as a pimp
word: pimp
word: pimp out
sense: to work
word: labor
Derived terms: hustlee
hustle up
outhustle
unhustled
unhustling