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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hustle.

To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈhʌsəl/
  1. To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle.

  2. To rush or hurry.

    intransitive
    I'll have to hustle to get there on time.
  3. To bundle; to stow something quickly.

    transitive
  4. To con, swindle, or deceive, especially financially.

    transitive
    The guy tried to hustle me into buying into a bogus real estate deal.
  5. To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge one.

  6. To obtain by illicit or forceful action.

    informal
  7. To sell sex; to work as a pimp.

    informal
  8. To be a prostitute; to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.

    informal
  9. To serve (a clientele) as a prostitute.

    informal
  10. To dance the hustle, a disco dance.

  11. To work.

    informal
  12. To put a lot of effort into one's work.

    informal
Where this word comes from

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

noun/ˈhʌsəl/
  1. A state of busy activity.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A propensity to work hard and get things done; ability to hustle.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A type of disco dance, commonly danced to the Van McCoy song The Hustle (1975).

    countable · uncountable
  4. A scam or swindle.

    countable · uncountable
  5. An activity, such as prostitution or reselling stolen items, that a prisoner uses to earn money in prison.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  6. An act of prostitution.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  7. An activity, especially to achieve a desired goal or make money.

    countable · informal · uncountable
    Everybody's got a hustle.
Where this word comes from

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

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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.