bustle
/ˈbʌsəl/
bustle noun: an excited activity; a stir.
Noun
bustle (countable and uncountable, plural bustles)
- 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.
- A grotesque-looking lady wearing a bustle (Anna mentally undressed the woman, and was appalled at her hideousness), and a little girl laughing affectedly ran down the platform.1901 [1878], chapter 31, in Constance Garnett, transl., Anna Karenina, translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, part 7
- 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...2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
- Synonyms:
- tournure
- 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.1825, Charles Molloy Westmacott, The English Spy, page 236
Verb
bustle (third-person singular simple present bustles, present participle bustling, simple past and past participle bustled)
- To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).
- The commuters bustled about inside the train station.
- I was once so mad to bussell abroad, and seek about for preferment […].1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
- 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.
- 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.1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers
Proper noun capitalized: Bustle
Bustle (plural Bustles)
- A surname from German.
bustle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
bustle in Hindi
- bustle, fuss, commotion, to-do
- चकल्लस cakallas
bustle in Tamil
- பரபரப்பு, ஆரவாரம், அமர்க்களம், அமளி, அரவம், தடபுடல்
bustle in Urdu
- چہل پہل, دھوم, گہماگہمی, ہلچل, کھلبلی, مارا مار
bustle in Bengali
- ব্যস্ত থাকা
More languagesFewer languages
- bustle in Malayalam
- അലുവല് aluval
- bustle in Kannada
- ಗಡಿಬಿಡಿ, ಕದುಬು, ಕೋಲಾಹಲ, ಗಲಭೆ
- bustle in Gujarati
- ધમાલ dhamāl
Examples of bustle in a sentence
- My father was in the meantime overjoyed and in the bustle of preparation only recognized in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I...
- As the sun ascends to his meridian, the hum and bustle gradually decline; at the height of noon there is a pause.1832, [Washington Irving], The Alhambra: A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards. […], volume (please specify |volume=I...
- The house has been in great bustle all the morning with people coming and going.1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “(please specify the page)”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to...
Synonyms of bustle
Forms of bustle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bustles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bustles |
| present participle | bustling |
| past participle | bustled |
| past | bustled |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Bustles |
Origin of bustle
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.
Possibly an Americanized spelling of South German Bastl or a variant of Bussell.
Words formed from bustle
Words that rhyme with bustle
Questions about bustle
- What does bustle mean?
- Bustle means an excited activity; a stir.
- What is bustle in Hindi?
- Bustle in Hindi is चकल्लस (cakallas). See Bustle meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use bustle in a sentence?
- My father was in the meantime overjoyed and in the bustle of preparation only recognized in the melancholy of his niece the diffidence of a bride.
- What part of speech is bustle?
- Bustle can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bustle?
- Bustle is pronounced /ˈbʌsəl/.
- What is the plural of bustle?
- The plural of bustle is bustles.
Words near bustle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bustle (page history and authors); Bustle (page history and authors); चकल्लस (Hindi) (page history and authors); bustle (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bustle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bustle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അലുവല് (Malayalam) (page history and authors); bustle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ધમાલ (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bustle.wav.
Cite this entry: “bustle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bustle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.