hustle
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L322161 on Wikidata ↗verb
- to act or cause to proceed quickly
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈhʌsəl/
noun
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)”).
- A state of busy activity.
- A propensity to work hard and get things done; ability to hustle.
“'It's just natural for the folks here to be indolent,' she said. 'They just haven't got any hustle in them.'”
- A type of disco dance, commonly danced to the Van McCoy song The Hustle (1975).
- A scam or swindle.
- An activity, such as prostitution or reselling stolen items, that a prisoner uses to earn money in prison.
- An act of prostitution.
“Little Joe never once gave it away / Everybody had to pay and pay / A hustle here and a hustle there / New York City's the place”
- An activity, especially to achieve a desired goal or make money.
“Everybody's got a hustle.”
verb
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)”).
- To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle.
“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.”
- To rush or hurry.
“I'll have to hustle to get there on time.”
“Men in dairy lunches were hustling to gulp down the food which cooks had hustled to fry”
- To bundle; to stow something quickly.
“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.”
- To con, swindle, or deceive, especially financially.
“The guy tried to hustle me into buying into a bogus real estate deal.”
- To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge one.
- To obtain by illicit or forceful action.
- To sell sex; to work as a pimp.
- To be a prostitute; to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.
“All my life, been hustling / And tonight is my appraisal / 'Cause I'm a hooker selling songs / And my pimp's a record label”
- To serve (a clientele) as a prostitute.
“When I was in Morocco I wrote this play ("Playland Blues") about young kids who […] hustle old gay men and closet queens.”
- To dance the hustle, a disco dance.
- To work.
- To put a lot of effort into one's work.
“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.”