jostle

UK/ˈd͡ʒɒs.əl//ˈd͡ʒɑ.səl/

jostle verb: to bump into or brush against while in motion; to push aside.

Verb

jostle (third-person singular simple present jostles, present participle jostling, simple past and past participle jostled)

(ambitransitive) To bump into or brush against while in motion; to push aside.
- Besides, various are the paths to power and fame which by accident or choice men pursue, and though they jostle against each other, for men of the same profession are seldom friends, yet there is a much greater number of their fellow-creatures with whom they never clash. But women are very...1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Some Instances of the Folly which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections on the Moral Improvement that a Revolution in Female Manners...
- It is not that there are several systems of movement, physical, intellectual, and moral, which are perpetually jostling each other, or which clash whenever they come in contact, and which move on by the one vanquishing the other. But, on the contrary, each of these economies takes its uninterrupted...1832, [Isaac Taylor], “Chapter 12”, in Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC, page 214
(intransitive) To move through by pushing and shoving.
- Axia and Amory, acquaintances of an hour, jostled behind a waiter to a table at a point of vantage; there they took seats and watched.1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The egotist considers”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 119
- Allow the person in front of you sufficient space to turn around from the bar with their drinks. Do not jostle past them.2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don't flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
(transitive) To be close to or in physical contact with.
- […] the advantages of diversification of structure, with the accompanying differences of habit and constitution, determine that the inhabitants, which thus jostle each other most closely, shall, as a general rule, belong to what we call different genera and orders.1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Natural Selection”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 114
(intransitive) To contend or vie in order to acquire something.
- Dick, who, in serious earnest, was supposed to have considerable natural talents for his profession, and whose vain and sanguine disposition never permitted him to doubt for a moment of ultimate success, threw himself headlong into the crowd which jostled and struggled for notice and preferment.1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter I, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for...
- […] Our statecraft, our learning
  Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning
  Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour.1917, Rudyard Kipling, “The Children,” poem accompanying the story “The Honours of War” in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan, pp. 129-130
(dated, slang) To pick or attempt to pick pockets.

Noun

jostle (plural jostles)

The act of jostling someone or something; push, shove.
- I had full hold of her Watch, but giving a great Jostle, as if somebody had thrust me against her, and in the Juncture giving the Watch a fair pull, I found it would not come, so I let it go that Moment, and cried out as if I had been killed, that somebody had trod upon my Foot […]1722, Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, London: J. Cooke, 1765, p. 241
The action of a jostling crowd.
- For years to come, the average of lone women will be largely increased; and the demand, always great, for some means by which they many provide for themselves, in the rude jostle of the world, will become more urgent and imperative.1865, Harriet Beecher Stowe (under the pseudonym Christopher Crowfield), The Chimney-Corner, Boston: Ticknor & Field, 1868, Chapter 12, p. 291

jostle meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

jostle in Urdu

مارا مار, چھینا جھپٹی کرنا, دھکا دینا, دھکا مارنا, کہنی مارنا

jostle in Bengali

কনুই দিয়ে ধাক্কা দেওয়া, ধাক্কাধাক্কি করা

jostle in Kannada

ತಳ್ಳು, ನೂಕು, ದಬ್ಬು, ಹೋರಾಡು, ಸೆಣಸು, ಹೆಣಗಾಡು

More languagesFewer languages

jostle in Odia: ଠେଲିବା ṭhelibā
jostle in Vietnamese: chen

Examples of jostle in a sentence

The Heathers are all kilts, scrunchies, and shoulder pads, jostling alongside the letterman-jacketed homophobic jocks.
She straightened her dress and foofed her hair as she jostled herself into position.
The sea tossed and jostled Rose and a tenderful of Willies.

All 14 example sentences with jostle

Forms of jostle

Verb
third-person singular present	jostles
present participle	jostling
past participle	jostled
past	jostled
Noun
plural	jostles

Past tense of jostle: jostled

Origin of jostle

Originally justle (“to have sex with”), formed from Middle English jousten, from the Old French joster (“to joust”), from Latin iuxtā (“next to”), from iungō (“join, connect”), equivalent to joust + -le.

Words formed from jostle

Words that rhyme with jostle

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about jostle

What does jostle mean?: Jostle means to bump into or brush against while in motion; to push aside.
What is jostle in Urdu?: Jostle in Urdu is مارا مار, چھینا جھپٹی کرنا, دھکا دینا. See Jostle meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is jostle?: Jostle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce jostle?: Jostle is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɒs.əl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of jostle?: The past tense of jostle is jostled.

Words near jostle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: jostle (page history and authors); jostle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jostle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jostle (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jostle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ଠେଲିବା (Odia) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-jostle.ogg, en-au-jostle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “jostle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jostle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.