hustle

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property
noun a rapid active commotion
verb cause to move furtively and hurriedly

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

We'll hustle to the station now. — Free Air, Sinclair Lewis
“Why do you hustle and jostle and bother? — At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald
Are you going straight At a hustling gait? — Poems Teachers Ask For, Book Two, Various

bunco, bunco game, bunko, bunko game, con, confidence trick, confidence game, con game, gyp, sting, flimflam

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