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hustling

 - 4 dictionary results

hus⋅tle

  [huhs-uhl] verb, -tled, -tling, noun
Use hustling in a Sentence
–verb (used without object)
1. to proceed or work rapidly or energetically: to hustle about putting a house in order.
2. to push or force one's way; jostle or shove.
3. to be aggressive, esp. in business or other financial dealings.
4. Slang. to earn one's living by illicit or unethical means.
5. Slang. (of a prostitute) to solicit clients.
–verb (used with object)
6. to convey or cause to move, esp. to leave, roughly or hurriedly: They hustled him out of the bar.
7. to pressure or coerce (a person) to buy or do something: to hustle the customers into buying more drinks.
8. to urge, prod, or speed up: Hustle your work along.
9. to obtain by aggressive or illicit means: He could always hustle a buck or two from some sucker.
10. to beg; solicit.
11. to sell in or work (an area), esp. by high-pressure tactics: The souvenir venders began hustling the town at dawn.
12. to sell aggressively: to hustle souvenirs.
13. to jostle, push, or shove roughly.
14. Slang. to induce (someone) to gamble or to promote (a gambling game) when the odds of winning are overwhelmingly in one's own favor.
15. Slang. to cheat; swindle: They hustled him out of his savings.
16. Slang.
a. (of a prostitute) to solicit (someone).
b. to attempt to persuade (someone) to have sexual relations.
c. to promote or publicize in a lively, vigorous, or aggressive manner: an author hustling her new book on the TV talk shows.
–noun
17. energetic activity, as in work.
18. discourteous shoving, pushing, or jostling.
19. Slang.
a. an inducing by fraud, pressure, or deception, esp. of inexperienced or uninformed persons, to buy something, to participate in an illicit scheme, dishonest gambling game, etc.
b. such a product, scheme, gambling game, etc.
20. Informal. a competitive struggle: the hustle to earn a living.
21. 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:
1675–85; < D husselen, var. of hutselen to shake, equiv. to hutsen to shake + -el- -le
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To hustling
hus·tle   (hŭs'əl)   
v.   hus·tled, hus·tling, hus·tles

v.   intr.

  1. To move or act energetically and rapidly: We hustled to get dinner ready on time.

  2. To push or force one's way.

  3. To act aggressively, especially in business dealings.

  4. Slang

    1. To obtain something by deceitful or illicit means; practice theft or swindling.

    2. To solicit customers. Used of a pimp or prostitute.

    3. To misrepresent one's ability in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling.

v.   tr.

  1. To push or convey in a hurried or rough manner: hustled the prisoner into a van.

  2. To cause or urge to proceed quickly; hurry: hustled the board into a quick decision.

  3. Slang

    1. To sell or get by questionable or aggressive means: hustled stolen watches; hustling spare change.

    2. To pressure into buying or doing something: a barfly hustling the other customers for drinks.

    3. To misrepresent one's skill in (a game or activity) in order to deceive someone, especially in gambling: hustle pool.

n.  

  1. The act or an instance of jostling or shoving.

  2. Energetic activity; drive.

  3. Slang An illicit or unethical way of doing business or obtaining money; a fraud or deceit: "the most dangerous and wide-open drug hustle of them all" (Newsweek).


[Dutch husselen, to shake, from Middle Dutch hustelen, frequentative of hutsen.]
hus'tler n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
hustle [ˈhəslæ]

  1. in.
    to move rapidly; to hurry. : It's late. I've got to hustle.
  2. n.
    hurried movement; confusion. : I can't work when there is all this hustle around me.
  3. n.
    a scheme to make money; a special technique for making money. (Underworld. This includes drug dealing, prostitution, and other vice activities.) : Each of these punks has a hustle—a specialty in crime. , We all know what Shorty's hustle is.
  4. in.
    to use one's special technique for making money. : He's out there on the streets hustling all the time.
  5. tv.
    to use a scheme on a person to try to make money; to consomeone. : Don't try to hustle me, sister. I know which end is up.
  6. tv.
    to attempt to seduce someone. : I think that Britney's hustling Max.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

hustle 
1684, "to shake to and fro" (especially of money in a cap, as part of a game called hustle-cap), metathesized from Du. hutselen, husseln "to shake, to toss," freq. of hutsen, var. 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" [O.E.D.]. Meaning of "push roughly, shove" first recorded 1751. That of "hurry, move quickly" is from 1812. "To get in a quick, illegal manner" is 1840 in Amer.Eng.; "to sell goods aggressively" is 1887. The noun sense of "illegal business activity" is first recorded 1963 in Amer.Eng. Hustler "thief" is first recorded 1825; in sense of "energetic person" (especially a salesman) it is from 1882; in sense of "prostitute" it dates from 1924.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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