Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To move or act energetically and rapidly.
  • intransitive verb To push or force one's way.
  • intransitive verb To act aggressively, especially in business dealings.
  • intransitive verb To obtain something by deceitful or illicit means; practice theft or swindling.
  • intransitive verb To solicit customers. Used of a pimp or prostitute.
  • intransitive verb To misrepresent one's ability in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling.
  • intransitive verb To push or convey in a hurried or rough manner.
  • intransitive verb To cause or urge to proceed quickly; hurry.
  • intransitive verb To sell or get by questionable or aggressive means.
  • intransitive verb To pressure into buying or doing something.
  • intransitive verb To misrepresent one's skill in (a game or activity) in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling.
  • noun The act or an instance of jostling or shoving.
  • noun Energetic activity; drive.
  • noun Slang An illicit or unethical way of doing business or obtaining money; a fraud or deceit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To shake or throw together confusedly or in a disorderly manner; shove roughly, as by crowding; jostle: as, to hustle things out of the way; he was hustled off the course.
  • To push or crowd; move about with difficulty, as in a crowd; shuffle or shamble hurriedly.
  • To make haste; move or act energetically: as, come, hustle now.
  • To shake up the halfpence in the game of pitch and hustle. See below.
  • To inveigle into dishonest games.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To shake together in confusion; to push, jostle, or crowd rudely; to handle roughly.
  • intransitive verb To push or crows; to force one's way; to move hustily and with confusion; a hurry.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To rush or hurry.
  • verb transitive To con or deceive; especially financially.
  • verb transitive To bundle, to stow something quickly.
  • verb To dance the hustle (see Wikipedia:Hustle (dance))
  • verb To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge.
  • verb To sell sex, to work as a pimp.
  • verb To be a prostitute, to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.
  • noun A state of busy activity.
  • noun A type of disco dance. See Wikipedia:Hustle (dance) for more information.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb move or cause to move energetically or busily
  • verb pressure or urge someone into an action
  • noun a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property
  • noun a rapid active commotion
  • verb sell something to or obtain something from by energetic and especially underhanded activity
  • verb get by trying hard
  • verb cause to move furtively and hurriedly

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dutch husselen, to shake, from Middle Dutch hustelen, frequentative of hutsen.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hustle.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.