hustle
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To put a lot of effort into one's work.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
huhsuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhʌsəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
informal
To put a lot of effort into one's work.
transitive
To con, swindle, or deceive, especially financially.
informal
To sell sex; to work as a pimp.
informal
Sell something to or obtain something from by energetic and especially underhanded activity
informal
To obtain by illicit or forceful action.
informal
To be a prostitute; to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.
noun
A swindle in which you cheat at gambling or persuade a person to buy worthless property
A scam or swindle.
preceded by a definite article
A type of disco dance, commonly danced to the Van McCoy song The Hustle (1975).
A propensity to work hard and get things done; ability to hustle.
informal
An activity, especially to achieve a desired goal or make money.
A state of busy activity.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To put a lot of effort into one's work.
Used this way, hustle is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use hustle
- “The secret service agents hustled the speaker out of the amphitheater.”verb
- “She hustled a free lunch from the waiter.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A prostitute who attracts customers by walking the streets.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: swindle in which you cheat at gambling
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.