Search the Dictionary

noisily; to be rudely active; to move in a way to cause agitation or disturbance; as, to bustle through a crowd. And leave the world for me to bustle in. Shak.

An active, stirring person.

Doing; trouble; difficulty; troublesome business; fuss; bustle; as, to make a great ado about trifles. With much ado, he partly kept awake. Dryden. Let's follow to see the end of this ado. Shak.

An old name for a woman's bustle. [U. S.] If, by her bishop, or her "grace" alone, A genuine lady, or a church, is known. Saxe.

To make a confused noise; to bustle. It [the goose] cluttered here, it chuckled there. Tennyson.

A noise, tumult, bustle, or confusion. [Obs.] Shak.

ause Will in concealment wrap me up awhile. Shak. His dearest wish was to escape from the bustle and glitter of Whitehall. Macaulay.

Ado; bustle; stir; to do. [R.] A great deal of do, and a great deal of trouble. Selden.

Ado; bustle; business. [Obs.] The warder chid and made fare. Chaucer.

Violent agitation; commotion; bustle; hurry. The racket and flurry of London. Blakw. Mag.

To be in a heat or bustle; to be agitated and confused. The flstering, vainglorious Greeks. South.

To move about briskly, irregularly, or with great bustle and show, without much result. No rag, no scrap, of all the beau, or wit, That once so fluttered, and that once so writ. Pope.

A tumult; a bustle; unnecessary or annoying ado about trifles. Byron. Zealously, assiduously, and with a minimum of fuss or noise Carlyle.

Tumult; bustle; confusion. Shak. All places were filled with tumult and hurly-burly. Knolles.

The act of hurrying in motion or business; pressure; urgency; bustle; confusion. Ambition raises a tumult in the soul, it inflames the mind, and puts into a violent hurry of thought. Addison.

Confusedly; in a bustle. [Obs.] Gray.

ve. (a) To take some action. (b) To move a piece, as in a game. -- To be on the move, to bustle or stir about. [Colloq.]

Making, or causing, no noise or bustle; without noise; silent; as, the noiseless foot of time. So noiseless would I live. Dryden. -- Noise"less*ly, adv. -- Noise"less*ness, n.

A framework of steel or whalebone, worn by women to expand their dresses; a kind of bustle.

Bustle; confusion; tumult; flutter; bother. [Written also potter, and pudder.] "What a pother and stir!" Oldham. "Coming on with a terrible pother." Wordsworth.