bustle

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to move or cause to move energetically or busily

   The cheerleaders bustled about excitingly before their performance.

2. 2
   noun

   An excited activity; a stir.

   the whirl and bustle of a large metropolis

3. 3
   noun

   A frame worn underneath a woman's skirt, typically only protruding from the rear as opposed to the earlier more circular hoops.

   All the portraits that hang on the walls of the living room are, I realize, of my mother's family: miniatures of her great-aunts in Victorian bustles and elaborate feathered hats; a gilt-framed oil of her great-great-great-uncle as a boy in pastoral England, wearing a gold riding coat over white jodhpurs and sitting astride a white steed, a King Charles spaniel yapping at them from the foreground of the canvas.

4. 4
   noun

   Money; cash.

   Why the old clerical's turned coper—a new way of raising the wind——letting his friends down easy—gave you a good dinner, I suppose, Sir John, and took this method of drawing the bustle for it: an old trick of the reverend's.

5. 5
   verb

   To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).

   The commuters bustled about inside the train station.

6. 6
   verb

   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.

7. 7
   verb

   To push around, to importune.

   Don’t bustle her or fuss or snatch: / A suitor looking at his watch / Is not a posture that persuades / Willing, much less reluctant maids.

8. 8
   noun

   a rapid active commotion

Etymology

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”).