Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To play music or perform entertainment in a public place, usually while soliciting money.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An obsolete form of
bush . - To get ready; prepare; equip; dress: as, to
busk a fish-hook. - To use; employ.
- To get ready and go; hasten; hurry.
- To seek; hunt up and down; cast about; beat about.
- Nautical, to beat to windward along a coast; cruise off and on.
- To cruise as a pirate.
- To earn a livelihood by going about singing, playing, and selling ballads, or as an acrobat, juggler, etc., in public houses, steamboats, on the street, etc.
- noun A stiffened body-garment, as a doublet, corset, or bodice.
- noun A flexible strip of wood, steel, whalebone, or other stiffening material, placed in the front of stays to keep them in form.
- noun An Indian feast of first fruits.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Among the Creek Indians, a feast of first fruits celebrated when the corn is ripe enough to be eaten. The feast usually continues four days. On the first day the new fire is lighted, by friction of wood, and distributed to the various households, an offering of green corn, including an ear brought from each of the four quarters or directions, is consumed, and medicine is brewed from snakeroot. On the second and third days the men physic with the medicine, the women bathe, the two sexes are taboo to one another, and all fast. On the fourth day there are feasting, dancing, and games.
- noun A thin, elastic strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset.
- verb Scot. & Old Eng. To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.
- verb obsolete To go; to direct one's course.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete A kind of
linen . - noun A strip of metal,
whalebone , wood, or other material, worn in the front of acorset to stiffen it. - noun by extension A
corset . - verb intransitive To
solicit money by entertaining the public in the street or in public transport - verb nautical To
tack , to cruise about. - verb To
prepare ; to make ready; toarray ; todress .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb play music in a public place and solicit money for it
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Jamieson (Scottish Dictionary) says: "The term busk is employed in a beautiful proverb which is very commonly used in Scotland, 'A bonny bride is soon busked. '"
Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904 1891
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Jamieson (Scottish Dictionary) says: "The term busk is employed in a beautiful proverb which is very commonly used in Scotland,
Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist Samuel Smiles 1858
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To busk is to play music on the street or subway, likely with an instrument case laid open so passersby can toss money in appreciation.
Singing a Song for All Steve Dollar 2011
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Indeed, her laudable anxiety to be tidy and compact in her own conscience as well as in the public eye, gave rise to one of her most startling evolutions, which was to grasp herself sometimes by a sort of wooden handle (part of her clothing, and familiarly called a busk), and wrestle as it were with her garments, until they fell into a symmetrical arrangement.
The Battle of Life 2007
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Indeed, her laudable anxiety to be tidy and compact in her own conscience as well as in the public eye, gave rise to one of her most startling evolutions, which was to grasp herself sometimes by a sort of wooden handle (part of her clothing, and familiarly called a busk), and wrestle as it were with her garments, until they fell into a symmetrical arrangement.
The Battle of Life 2007
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Indeed, her laudable anxiety to be tidy and compact in her own conscience as well as in the public eye, gave rise to one of her most startling evolutions, which was to grasp herself sometimes by a sort of wooden handle (part of her clothing, and familiarly called a busk), and wrestle as it were with her garments, until they fell into a symmetrical arrangement.
Battle of Life 1876
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The schoolmistress in those days wore what was called a busk -- a flat piece of lancewood, hornbeam, or some other like tough and elastic wood, thrust into a sort of pocket or sheath in her dress, which came up almost to the chin and came down below the waist.
Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2 George Frisbie Hoar 1865
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This look was achieved by inserting a skinny piece of bone or wood, called a busk, in a corset extending from the chest to low on the abdomen and forcing the body into an "S" shape.
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This look was achieved by inserting a skinny piece of bone or wood, called a busk, in a corset extending from the chest to low on the abdomen and forcing the body into an "S" shape.
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Would it not be well if we were to celebrate such a "busk," or "feast of first fruits," as Bartram describes to have been the custom of the Mucclasse Indians?
yarb commented on the word busk
..ladies' busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material...
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 57
July 25, 2008
AnWulf commented on the word busk
Busk >>> from O.N. buask "to make oneself ready"
September 17, 2011
fbharjo commented on the word busk
feast of first fruits among Creek Indians.
February 8, 2013
fbharjo commented on the word busk
Boscar - to beat about the bushes ( Old Spanish)
May 3, 2013
bilby commented on the word busk
Buskers should be made to wear pirate costumes.
August 29, 2021