bustle

Etymology

From Middle English bustlen, bustelen, bostlen, perhaps an alteration of *busklen (> Modern English buskle), a frequentative of Middle English busken (“to prepare; make ready”), from Old Norse búask (“to prepare oneself”); or alternatively from a frequentative form of Middle English busten, bisten (“to buffet; pummel; dash; beat”) + -le. Compare also Icelandic bustla (“to splash; bustle”).

noun

1. (countable, uncountable) An excited activity; a stir.
   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 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, § 34
2. (computing, countable) A cover to protect and hide the back panel of a computer or other office machine.
3. (historical, countable) 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. 2006, Peter Godwin, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa

verb

1. To move busily and energetically with fussiness (often followed by about).
   The commuters bustled about inside the train station.
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. 1981, A. D. Hope, “His Coy Mistress to Mr. Marvell”, in A Book of Answers