from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To move or cause to move energetically and busily.
- n. Excited and often noisy activity; a stir.
- n. A frame or pad to support and expand the fullness of the back of a woman's skirt.
- n. A bow, peplum, or gathering of material at the back of a woman's skirt below the waist.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An excited activity; a stir.
- n. A cover to protect and hide the back panel of a computer or other office machine.
- n. A frame worn underneath a woman's skirt.
- v. To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).
- v. To teem or abound (usually followed by with); to exhibit an energetic and active abundance (of a thing). See also bustle with.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- intransitive v. To move noisily; to be rudely active; to move in a way to cause agitation or disturbance.
- n. Great stir; agitation; tumult from stirring or excitement.
- 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.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To display activity with a certain amount of noise or agitation; be active and stirring; move quickly and energetically: sometimes used, reflexively.
- n. Activity with noise and agitation; stir; hurry-scurry.
- 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.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. move or cause to move energetically or busily
- n. a rapid active commotion
- n. a framework worn at the back below the waist for giving fullness to a woman's skirt
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)
From Old Norse búask ("to prepare oneself"). (Wiktionary)