busker

American  

[buhs-ker] / ˈbʌs kər /

noun

• buskers
  plural

1. someone who performs on the street or in a public place, especially for money.

   Buskers staked out small areas on the boardwalk to serenade the crowd with old-fashioned favorites and newfangled hits.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• buskers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of busker

busk ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

busker buskers

Curious, she went up to the busker to ask her what type of music she was singing; it was the blues, she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026

She typically charges customers $60 for a photo, and even with the Strip steadily growing more expensive—when a snapshot with a busker costs roughly the same as a burger and beer—her financial model has broken.

From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025

At the roadside, a lone busker played the same tune over and over again on an electric piano, as a sea of protesters passed by.

From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2025

I’m on a low rung of the ladder, just above busker.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2023

The next time the busker was interrupted mid-song was only when Phil Donahue put his arm around him and said “Thank you. Thank you very much.”

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

From buskers on the bodhran to musicians firing up their fiddles, the atmosphere and the celebration of music and culture has been joyful.

From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026

The one constant, however, was the music — whether it was attending concerts by Mano Negra and the Sugarcubes or listening to buskers performing José José karaoke at the border crossing.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

The council said it had prosecuted seven people for 21 separate offences since September last year, and that it "regularly seized equipment from unlicensed buskers, including in and around Leicester Square".

From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2025

The Market’s 9 acres include more than 220 shops and restaurants and over 160 craftspeople, plus farmers and buskers, according to its website.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2023

Mum wanted to go to Covent Garden to see the buskers.

From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd