hustle

verb hustles · hustling · hustled

1. To push someone roughly; to crowd; to jostle. There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.[…]Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching
2. intransitive To rush or hurry. I'll have to hustle to get there on time.
3. transitive To bundle; to stow something quickly. There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.
4. transitive To con, swindle, or deceive, especially financially. 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. informal To obtain by illicit or forceful action.
7. informal To sell sex; to work as a pimp.
8. informal To be a prostitute; to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money. All my life, been hustling / And tonight is my appraisal / 'Cause I'm a hooker selling songs / And my pimp's a record label
9. informal To serve (a clientele) as a prostitute. When I was in Morocco I wrote this play ("Playland Blues") about young kids who […] hustle old gay men and closet queens.
10. To dance the hustle, a disco dance.
11. informal To work.
12. informal To put a lot of effort into one's work. Frazier and Gary worked for me for free -- for six months -- they didn't take any money from the house. They worked for tips. They both had other jobs, and they came in here and they hustled their ass.

Similar: make tracks, swindle, turn tricks

noun hustles

1. countable, uncountable A state of busy activity.
2. countable, uncountable A propensity to work hard and get things done; ability to hustle. 'It's just natural for the folks here to be indolent,' she said. 'They just haven't got any hustle in them.'
3. countable, uncountable A type of disco dance, commonly danced to the Van McCoy song The Hustle (1975).
4. countable, uncountable A scam or swindle.
5. countable, slang, uncountable An activity, such as prostitution or reselling stolen items, that a prisoner uses to earn money in prison.
6. countable, slang, uncountable An act of prostitution. Little Joe never once gave it away / Everybody had to pay and pay / A hustle here and a hustle there / New York City's the place
7. countable, informal, uncountable An activity, especially to achieve a desired goal or make money. Everybody's got a hustle.