bustle.
An excited activity; a stir.
Meaning & usage
An excited activity; a stir.
the hum and bustle; a din and bustle
the whirl and bustle of a large metropolis
A cover to protect and hide the back panel of a computer or other office machine.
A frame worn underneath a woman's skirt, typically only protruding from the rear as opposed to the earlier more circular hoops.
Money; cash.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bustlen, bustelen, bostlen, perhaps an alteration of *busklen (> Modern English buskle), a frequentative of Middle English busken (“to prepare; make ready”), from Old Norse búask (“to prepare oneself”); or alternatively from a frequentative form of Middle English busten, bisten (“to buffet; pummel; dash; beat”) + -le. Compare also Icelandic bustla (“to splash; bustle”). The etymology of noun sense 3 is uncertain, perhaps related to busk (“strip in a corset”) or German Buschel.
To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).
The commuters bustled about inside the train station.
To teem or abound (usually followed by with); to exhibit an energetic and active abundance (of a thing).
The train station was bustling with commuters.
To push around, to importune.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English bustlen, bustelen, bostlen, perhaps an alteration of *busklen (> Modern English buskle), a frequentative of Middle English busken (“to prepare; make ready”), from Old Norse búask (“to prepare oneself”); or alternatively from a frequentative form of Middle English busten, bisten (“to buffet; pummel; dash; beat”) + -le. Compare also Icelandic bustla (“to splash; bustle”). The etymology of noun sense 3 is uncertain, perhaps related to busk (“strip in a corset”) or German Buschel.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.