Library / English Dictionary

HUSTLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A rapid active commotion

Synonyms:

ado; bustle; flurry; fuss; hustle; stir

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("hustle" is a kind of...):

commotion; din; ruckus; ruction; rumpus; tumult (the act of making a noisy disturbance)

Derivation:

hustle (move or cause to move energetically or busily)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property

Synonyms:

bunco; bunco game; bunko; bunko game; con; con game; confidence game; confidence trick; flimflam; hustle; sting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("hustle" is a kind of...):

cheat; rig; swindle (the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hustle"):

sting operation (a complicated confidence game planned and executed with great care (especially an operation implemented by undercover agents to apprehend criminals))

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pressure or urge someone into an action

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "hustle" is one way to...):

persuade (cause somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action; twist somebody's arm)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move or cause to move energetically or busily

Example:

The cheerleaders bustled about excitingly before their performance

Synonyms:

bustle; bustle about; hustle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "hustle" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

"Hustle" entails doing...:

belt along; bucket along; cannonball along; hasten; hie; hotfoot; pelt along; race; rush; rush along; speed; step on it (move hurridly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

hustle (a rapid active commotion)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cause to move furtively and hurriedly

Example:

The secret service agents hustled the speaker out of the amphitheater

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "hustle" is one way to...):

displace; move (cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Get by trying hard

Example:

she hustled a free lunch from the waiter

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "hustle" is one way to...):

have; receive (get something; come into possession of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Sell something to or obtain something from by energetic and especially underhanded activity

Synonyms:

hustle; pluck; roll

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "hustle" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something from somebody

Derivation:

hustler (a shrewd or unscrupulous person who knows how to circumvent difficulties)

hustler (a prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I had emerged by another door, and stood in the street for a little while, as if I really were a stranger upon earth: but the unceremonious pushing and hustling that I received, soon recalled me to myself, and put me in the road back to the hotel; whither I went, revolving the glorious vision all the way; and where, after some porter and oysters, I sat revolving it still, at past one o'clock, with my eyes on the coffee-room fire.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The dry-goods stores were not down among the counting-houses, banks, and wholesale warerooms, where gentlemen most do congregate, but Jo found herself in that part of the city before she did a single errand, loitering along as if waiting for someone, examining engineering instruments in one window and samples of wool in another, with most unfeminine interest, tumbling over barrels, being half-smothered by descending bales, and hustled unceremoniously by busy men who looked as if they wondered 'how the deuce she got there'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)