Hustle
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ʌsəl
Origin
By metathesis from Dutch hutselen ("to shake up").
Full definition of hustle
Verb
- (intransitive) To rush or hurry.I'll have to hustle to get there on time.
- 1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt (novel) Chapter 12Men in dairy lunches were hustling to gulp down the food which cooks had hustled to fry
- (transitive) To con or deceive; especially financially.The guy tried to hustle me into buying into a bogus real estate deal.
- (transitive) To bundle, to stow something quickly.
- 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen RabbitThere 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 dance the hustle, a disco dance.
- To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge.
- To sell sex, to work as a pimp.
- To be a prostitute, to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.
- (informal) To put a lot of effort into one's work.