hustle

HUS-uhl/ˈhʌsəl/

Noun pluralhustles

19 meanings of hustle

1
hurryverbintransitive
To move or act quickly; to rush or hurry.
The waiters were hustling between tables to keep up with the lunch crowd.
If we hustle, we can still make the early show.
Similarhurry, rush, race, scurry
Oppositedawdle, dally
2
side businessnouncolloquialcountable
An activity a person pursues to reach a goal, especially to make money.
In a city this expensive, almost everyone has a hustle on top of the day job.
Her latest hustle is buying old furniture at yard sales and restoring it for resale.
Similargig, sideline, venture
3
verbcolloquialintransitive
To put a great deal of effort into one's work.
The rookies hustled on every play, diving for loose balls.
Freelancers who hustle can earn more than they did in an office.
Similargraft, toil, strive
Oppositeslack, loaf, coast
Note
Effort here is something to praise: to hustle is to give every play or every shift everything you have. Coarse speech intensifies it to hustle one's ass, and the phrase is still approving: they worked for tips, and they hustled their ass. The quality has its own noun, hustle as a trait, so a hard worker both hustles and has hustle.
4
busy activitynoununcountable
A state in which there is a great deal of busy activity.
Away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, the park felt almost silent.
The newsroom was all hustle in the hour before the paper went to press.
Similarbustle, activity, commotion
Oppositecalm, quiet, tranquility
5
verbtransitive
To con, cheat, or deceive someone, especially in order to get money from them.
The salesman hustled several retirees into signing up for worthless insurance.
Don't let anyone hustle you with promises of quick, guaranteed profits.
Similarcon, dupe, trick, swindle, cheat
6
scamnouncountable
A dishonest scheme for cheating people; a scam or swindle.
Police say the charity drive was a hustle from the start.
Investors lost their savings in an elaborate real estate hustle.
Similarscam, swindle, con, racket, fraud
7
energynoununcountable
A tendency or ability to work hard and get things done.
What the new hires lack in experience, they make up for in hustle.
Nobody in that sleepy office has any hustle left in them by Friday afternoon.
Similardrive, energy, effort, gumption
Oppositelaziness, lethargy
8
push roughlyverbtransitive
To push someone roughly, or to crowd against and jostle others.
Commuters hustle one another on the platform whenever a train pulls in.
Two security guards hustled the heckler toward the exit.
Similarjostle, shove, push, bundle
Note
The jostling sense keeps the word's Dutch picture of shaking: husselen or hutselen meant to shake up, from a verb for stirring something back and forth. That jostle is plain in G. A. Birmingham's Gossamer (1915), where pushing men hustle each other at a ship's purser's window. With a direction added, as in hustle someone out or toward the exit, it means moving a person along by force.
9
put awayverbtransitive
To bundle something away, stowing it quickly.
The clerk hustled the files into a drawer as soon as the inspector walked in.
Between scenes, stagehands hustle the props away into the wings.
Similarwhisk, bundle
10
play badlyverbintransitive
To play a game or sport badly on purpose so that other players are encouraged to challenge you.
The old man would hustle at chess in the park, fumbling his opening moves to tempt passersby into a game.
They hustled at the bowling alley, losing the first two games on purpose before raising the stakes.
Similarsandbag

11
get dishonestlyverbcolloquialtransitive
To get something by illicit or forceful means.
She hustled two backstage passes by flashing an expired press badge.
Street kids hustle cigarettes and spare change from anyone who looks lost.
Similarwangle, finagle, scrounge, cadge
12
earn a livingverbcolloquialintransitive
To work; to do one's job.
He hustles nights at a warehouse and takes classes during the day.
Everybody on this block has to hustle somewhere, at the docks or the corner store.
Similarwork, toil
13
a disco dancenounusually singular
A disco dance, commonly danced to Van McCoy's 1975 song The Hustle.
The instructor walked the class through the basic steps of the hustle.
At the retro party, everyone lined up to do the hustle under the mirror ball.
14
dance to discoverbintransitive
To perform the hustle, a dance done to disco music.
Couples hustled across the floor as the mirror ball spun overhead.
By the end of the lesson, even the shyest students could hustle in time to the disco beat.
15
sell sexverbcolloquialintransitive
To work as a prostitute, exchanging sexual services for money.
16
pimpverbcolloquialintransitive
To sell sex for money, or to work as a pimp.
Before his arrest, he hustled at a motel off the interstate, taking a cut from every woman who worked there.
Detectives said the pair would hustle for years, sending women to hotels across the state.
Similarpimp
17
sell sexverbcolloquialtransitive
To serve a particular clientele as a prostitute.
18
paid sexnounslangcountable
A single act of prostitution.
Similartrick
Note
Street slang counts this hustle one at a time, as Lou Reed does in Walk on the Wild Side (1972), where they come one by one in different places. Because the same noun also means a scam or any money-making activity, only the setting makes the sexual meaning clear, so in neutral writing a plainer word is the safer choice.
19
prison money-makingnounslangcountable
A way a prisoner earns money inside prison, such as prostitution or reselling stolen goods.
His hustle on C Block was reselling food smuggled out of the prison kitchen.
Without a hustle, an inmate has nothing to trade for soap or stamps.
Similarracket
Note
Prison slang gives the word an economy of its own: an inmate's hustle is whatever brings in money or goods behind the walls, from prostitution to reselling stolen items. It belongs to the talk of prisoners and of those who write about prison life, and with a possessive (his hustle) it names a person's line of business. Outside, the wider money-making sense covers similar ground.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of hustle apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Dutch husselen, or by metathesis from Dutch hutselen (“to shake up”), a frequentative of hutsen (“to stir, to move something back and forth”).