bustle

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An excited activity; a stir.

   “the whirl and bustle of a large metropolis”

   “we are, perhaps, all the while flattering our natural indolence, which, hating the bustle of the world, and drudgery of business seeks a pretence of reason to give itself a full and uncontrolled indulgence.”

   “In the midſt of all this buſtle, I was ſtruck with the appearance of a large bevy of beauties and women of the firſt fashion, who with all the perfect confidence of good breeding, inſhrined themſelves in the ſeveral temples dedicated to the Cyprian Venus[.]”

2. (countable)A cover to protect and hide the back panel of a computer or other office machine.
3. (countable, historical)A frame worn underneath a woman's skirt, typically only protruding from the rear as opposed to the earlier more circular hoops.

   “All the portraits that hang on the walls of the living room are, I realize, of my mother's family: miniatures of her great-aunts in Victorian bustles and elaborate feathered hats; a gilt-framed oil of her great-great-great-uncle as a boy in pastoral England, wearing a gold riding coat over white jodhpurs and sitting astride a white steed, a King Charles spaniel yapping at them from the foreground of the canvas.”

4. (UK, obsolete, slang, uncountable)Money; cash.

   “Why the old clerical's turned coper—a new way of raising the wind——letting his friends down easy—gave you a good dinner, I suppose, Sir John, and took this method of drawing the bustle for it: an old trick of the reverend's.”

verb

1. To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).

   “The commuters bustled about inside the train station.”

   “I was once so mad to bussell abroad, and seek about for preferment […].”

2. To teem or abound (usually followed by with); to exhibit an energetic and active abundance (of a thing).

   “The train station was bustling with commuters.”

3. (transitive)To push around, to importune.

   “Don’t bustle her or fuss or snatch: / A suitor looking at his watch / Is not a posture that persuades / Willing, much less reluctant maids.”

name

1. A surname from German.