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  1. bustle love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To move or cause to move energetically and busily.
  2. n. Excited and often noisy activity; a stir.
  3. n. A frame or pad to support and expand the fullness of the back of a woman's skirt.
  4. n. A bow, peplum, or gathering of material at the back of a woman's skirt below the waist.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To display activity with a certain amount of noise or agitation; be active and stirring; move quickly and energetically: sometimes used, reflexively.
  2. n. Activity with noise and agitation; stir; hurry-scurry.
  3. n. A pad, cushion, curved frame-work of wire, or the like, worn by women on the back part of the body below the waist for the purpose of improving the figure, causing the folds of the skirt to hang gracefully, and preventing the skirt from interfering with the feet in walking.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An excited activity; a stir.
  2. n. computing A cover to protect and hide the back panel of a computer or other office machine.
  3. n. obsolete A frame worn underneath a woman's skirt.
  4. v. To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).
  5. v. To teem or abound (usually followed by with); to exhibit an energetic and active abundance (of a thing). See also bustle with.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To move noisily; to be rudely active; to move in a way to cause agitation or disturbance.
  2. n. Great stir; agitation; tumult from stirring or excitement.
  3. n. A kind of pad or cushion worn on the back below the waist, by women, to give fullness to the skirts; -- called also bishop, and tournure.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. move or cause to move energetically or busily
  2. n. a rapid active commotion
  3. n. a framework worn at the back below the waist for giving fullness to a woman's skirt

Etymologies

  1. From Old Norse búask ("to prepare oneself"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Possibly variant of obsolete buskle, frequentative of busk, to prepare oneself, from Old Norse būask, reflexive of būa, to prepare; see bheuə- in Indo-European roots.Origin unknown. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “As the last melodies faded away, I heard a bustle from the doorway.”

    365 tomorrows » 2008 » July : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day

  • “All hurry or bustle is peculiarly painful to the sick.”

    Notes on Nursing: What It Is, and What It Is Not

  • “It is true, the populace retained themselves; but there arose a perpetual hum and bustle from the throng round the palace, which added to the noise of fireworks, the frequent explosion of arms, the tramp to and fro of horsemen and carriages, to which effervescence he was the focus, retarded his recovery.”

    II.1

  • “There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely – shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.”

    Sketches by Boz

  • “It was cut low over the bosom and the skirt was draped back over an enormous bustle and on the bustle was a huge bunch of pink velvet roses.”

    Simon & Schuster: Gone with the Wind

  • “A later order was given to wear a camel-like "hump" at the base of the vertebral column, which was called the "bustle" -- a contrivance calculated to unnerve the wearer, not to speak of the looker-on; yet the American woman adopted it, distorted her body, and aped the gait of the kangaroo, the form being called the”

    As A Chinaman Saw Us Passages from his Letters to a Friend at Home

  • “Tied to her back by way of a bustle was a brace of duck, or a roasted fowl wrapped neatly in linen.”

    A Woman's Part in a Revolution

  • “The amateur clowns scream, too, and one of them, in a burst of inspiration, takes off his absurd hat to the bustle, which is now left yards behind.”

    Pipefuls

  • “I love to recall the bustle of that arriving and how, as the motor came up the drive, Mis 'Holcomb-that-was-Mame-Bliss and Mis' Amanda ran down on the gravel and waved their aprons; and how Mis 'Postmaster Sykes and”

    Friendship Village

  • “There is nothing save an electric trolley and the motor engines of the fishing-boats to recall the bustle of to-day.”

    American Sketches 1908

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synonyms (22)

Words with the same meaning

  1. agitation
  2. action
  3. fluster
  4. flurry
  1. flutter
  2. stir
  3. to-do
  4. commotion
  1. fuss
  2. tumult
  3. rustle
  4. hustle
  1. scamper
  2. flit
  3. scurry
  4. bristle
  1. swell
  2. brim
  3. teem
  4. crawl
  1. burst
  2. abound

antonyms (3)

Words with the opposite meaning

  1. leisure
  1. deliberation
  1. idleness

hypernyms (8)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. move
  1. din
  1. ruckus
  1. rumpus
  1. commotion
  1. tumult
  1. ruction
  1. framework

same context (20)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. tumult
  2. stir
  3. commotion
  4. excitement
  1. hurry
  2. confusion
  3. din
  4. clatter
  1. chatter
  2. clamour
  3. hubbub
  4. whirl
  1. shout
  2. busy
  3. rush
  4. hum
  1. gaiety
  2. murmur
  3. haste
  4. amusement

rhymes (8)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Russel
  1. Russell
  1. bussell
  1. hustle
  1. muscle
  1. mussel
  1. rustle
  1. tussle

reverse dictionary (61)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. fussiness
  2. hyper-
  3. do
  4. hurly-burly
  5. hurry
  6. hurry-skurry
  7. Fisk
  8. fissle
  9. clutter
  10. coil
  11. dress-improver
  12. turmoil
  1. uproar
  2. whew
  3. noiseless
  4. pother
  5. pudder
  6. splatterdash
  7. splutter
  8. fuss
  9. bumroll
  10. buskle
  11. cavort
  12. clutterment
  1. fiddle-faddle
  2. fiskery
  3. fluther
  4. helter-skelter
  5. hurly
  6. whir
  7. ado
  8. bishop
  9. fare
  10. flurry
  11. fluster
  12. flutist
  1. jump
  2. buzz
  3. to-do
  4. worth
  5. charles frederick worth
  6. to be on the move
  7. pannier
  8. rustle
  9. scuttle
  10. stir
  11. tournure
  12. bearer
  1. field day
  2. improver
  3. monkey
  4. mull
  5. quiet
  6. rummage
  7. steery
  8. sputter
  9. stoor
  10. tew
  11. touse
  12. utas
  1. yank

tags (1)

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  1. -tle

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Lists

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Comments

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  • yarb This bill might truly be called the epitome of an apothecary's conscience. Such being the case, we had a bustle about the payment. I pleaded for an abatement of one-half. He swore that he would not take a doit less than his just demand.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 7 ch. 16 Oct 2, 2008

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‘bustle’ has been looked up 2895 times, loved by 3 people, added to 40 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 8.