hustle
- to proceed or work rapidly or energetically: to hustle about putting a house in order.
- to push or force one's way; jostle or shove.
- to be aggressive, especially in business or other financial dealings.
- Slang. to earn one's living by illicit or unethical means.
- Slang. (of a prostitute) to solicit clients.
- to convey or cause to move, especially to leave, roughly or hurriedly: They hustled him out of the bar.
- to pressure or coerce (a person) to buy or do something: to hustle the customers into buying more drinks.
- to urge, prod, or speed up: Hustle your work along.
- to obtain by aggressive or illicit means: He could always hustle a buck or two from some sucker.
- to beg; solicit.
- to sell in or work (an area), especially by high-pressure tactics: The souvenir venders began hustling the town at dawn.
- to sell aggressively: to hustle souvenirs.
- to jostle, push, or shove roughly.
- Slang. to induce (someone) to gamble or to promote (a gambling game) when the odds of winning are overwhelmingly in one's own favor.
- Slang. to cheat; swindle: They hustled him out of his savings.
- Slang.
- (of a prostitute) to solicit (someone).
- to attempt to persuade (someone) to have sexual relations.
- to promote or publicize in a lively, vigorous, or aggressive manner: an author hustling her new book on the TV talk shows.
- energetic activity, as in work.
- discourteous shoving, pushing, or jostling.
- Slang.
- an inducing by fraud, pressure, or deception, especially of inexperienced or uninformed persons, to buy something, to participate in an illicit scheme, dishonest gambling game, etc.
- such a product, scheme, gambling game, etc.
- Informal. a competitive struggle: the hustle to earn a living.
- a fast, lively, popular ballroom dance evolving from Latin American, swing, rock, and disco dance styles, with a strong basic rhythm and simple step pattern augmented by strenuous turns, breaks, etc.
Origin of hustle
Related Words for hustle
rush, shove, jog, fly, elbow, bulldoze, force, press, hotfoot, impel, push, race, haste, bustle, thrust, hasten, speedExamples from the Web for hustle
Contemporary Examples of hustle
Her hustle has started to pay off and she started a 14-date national tour in early November.
Halfway to the park, the hustle of Goma and outlying villages faded behind him.
Summer vacations should offer a hiatus from the hustle but at the Hamptons everyone is selling or pushing someone or something.
The Hell of the Hamptons: Why the Exclusive Hotspot Is a Mind-Numbing DragRobert Gold
August 18, 2014
Back then she was “forced,” but soon she started to hustle on corners “willingly,” and was paid for sex.
Titanic Thompson could beat you at cards, hustle you at golf, and bet you on anything, so long as the odds were in his favor.
Historical Examples of hustle
You hustle this big bully into the ship, and keep him covered.
Pirates of the GormNat Schachner
But the officers refused to let him go back, and began to hustle him forward.
The Fat and the ThinEmile Zola
Anna, you hustle up some engraved notices to get around to all our friends.
RopeHolworthy Hall
"We must hustle, if we want to get to Uncle Ike's before dark," Tom declared.
Ruth Fielding and the GypsiesAlice B. Emerson
By the time I found it the train was ready to start and I had to hustle.
Marjorie Dean, College SophomorePauline Lester
hustle
- to shove or crowd (someone) roughly
- to move or cause to move hurriedly or furtivelyhe hustled her out of sight
- (tr) to deal with or cause to proceed hurriedlyto hustle legislation through
- slang to earn or obtain (something) forcefully
- US and Canadian slang (of procurers and prostitutes) to solicit
- an instance of hustling
- undue activity
- a disco dance of the 1970s
Word Origin for hustle
Word Origin and History for hustle
1680s, "to shake to and fro" (especially of money in a cap, as part of a game called hustle-cap), metathesized from Dutch hutselen, husseln "to shake, to toss," frequentative of hutsen, variant of hotsen "to shake." "The stems hot-, hut- appear in a number of formations in both High and Low German dialects, all implying a shaking movement" [OED]. Related: Hustled; hustling. Meaning "push roughly, shove" first recorded 1751. That of "hurry, move quickly" is from 1812.
The key-note and countersign of life in these cities [of the U.S. West] is the word "hustle." We have caught it in the East. but we use it humorously, just as we once used the Southern word "skedaddle," but out West the word hustle is not only a serious term, it is the most serious in the language. [Julian Ralph, "Our Great West," N.Y., 1893]
Sense of "to get in a quick, illegal manner" is 1840 in American English; that of "to sell goods aggressively" is 1887.
"pushing activity; activity in the interest of success," 1891, American English, from hustle (v.); earlier it meant "a shaking together" (1715). Sense of "illegal business activity" is by 1963, American English. As a name of a popular dance, by 1975.