Hustle

English

Verb

Hustle (third-person singular simple present hustles, present participle hustling, simple past and past participle hustled)

1. (intransitive) To rush or hurry.

   I'll have to hustle to get there on time.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis , Babbit Chapter 12

     Men in dairy lunches were hustling to gulp down the food which cooks had hustled to fry

2. (transitive) To con or deceive.

   The guy tried to hustle me into buying into a bogus real estate deal.

3. (transitive) To bundle, to stow something quickly.
   • 1922, Margery Williams , The Velveteen Rabbit

     There 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.

4. to dance the hustle (see Wikipedia:Hustle (dance))
5. To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge.
6. To sell sex, to work as a pimp.
7. To be a prostitute, to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.

Noun

Hustle (plural Hustles)

1. A state of busy activity.
2. A type of disco dance. See Wikipedia:Hustle (dance) for more information.

Synonyms for Hustle

hurry, rush, fly, run, push, move, crowd, dash, race, spur, act, drive, scurry, hasten, expedite, bustle, accelerate.

Antonyms for Hustle

slow, delay, dawdle, trifle, lag, postpone, loaf, procrastinate, idle, lounge, defer, dissipate, loll, stall.

Derived terms

• hustle and bustle
• hustler
• hustly

Thesaurus

Charleston, Highland fling, Lambeth Walk, Mexican hat dance, Portland fancy, Virginia reel, Watusi, accelerate, action, activity, adventuresomeness, adventurousness, aggression, aggressiveness, allemande, ambitiousness, assault, barn dance, bear, bear upon, bearing, belly dance, bob, bobble, bolero, boogaloo, boost, bounce, bourree, boutade, branle, breakdown, buck, buffeting, bull, bulldoze, bump, bump against, bundle, bunny hop, bunt, bustle, butt, butt against, cakewalk, can-can, celerity, cha-cha, chase, chatter, chonchina, clog, coerce, conga, cotillion, country dance, courante, cram, crowd, dash, dash off, dash on, didder, dig, dispatch, do double duty, double-time, drive, drive on, dust, dynamism, eject, elbow, elbowing, elucubrate, enterprise, enterprisingness, expedite, expedition, expeditiousness, falter, fan dance, fandango, festinate, flamenco, fling, flurry, flutter, fly, folk dance, force, forcefulness, forge ahead, forward, fox trot, galliard, gavotte, german, get going, get moving, get-up-and-get, get-up-and-go, getup, go, go ahead, go all out, go-ahead, go-getting, go-to-itiveness, goad, gumption, haste, hasten, hasten on, have an ague, head, helter-skelter, hie on, hit the ball, hokey-pokey, hootchy-kootchy, hopak, hornpipe, hotfoot, hula, hula-hula, hurry, hurry along, hurry on, hurry through, hurry up, hurry-scurry, hurtle, hustle up, initiative, interpretative dance, jab, jactitate, jam, jar, jarring, jig, jog, joggle, jolt, jostle, jostling, jounce, jump, kola, lancers, leap, limbo, lindy, lose no time, lucubrate, make haste, make things hum, mambo, mazurka, minuet, monkey, move quickly, movement, nip, nudge, nudging, overwork, ox dance, pachanga, pas de deux, pas seul, paso doble, passamezzo, peabody, pile drive, plunge, poke, polka, polonaise, post, pour it on, precipitate, press, press on, pressure, prod, punch, push, push on, push through, pushfulness, pushiness, pushing, pushingness, quadrille, quake, quaver, quicken, quiver, race, railroad through, rain dance, ram, ram down, rattle, reel, rigadoon, rumba, run, run against, rush, rush along, rush through, rustle, samba, scamper, scramble, scratch, scurry, scuttle, shake, shimmy, shiver, shock, shoot ahead, shoulder, shove, shoving, shudder, slave, snake dance, speed, speed along, speed up, speediness, spirit, sprint, spunk, spur, spurt, square dance, stampede, step lively, stir, strathspey, stress, sweat, swiftness, swim, sword dance, tamp, tango, tap dance, tarantella, tear, thrust, tremble, trepak, turkey trot, twist, twitter, up-and-comingness, urge, valse, venturesomeness, venturousness, vibrate, waltz, war dance, whip, whip along, wobble, work hard, work late, work overtime

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʌsəl

Translations

Verb

to rush or hurry

Czech: pospíchat (cs), spěchat (cs)

Finnish: kiirehtiä (fi), hoppuilla (fi)

to con or deceive

Finnish: huijata (fi), petkuttaa (fi)

Noun

rush or hurry

Finnish: kiire (fi), hoppu (fi)

type of dance

Finnish: hustle (fi)

Anagrams

• sleuth