Herewith the seventh in an ongoing series of entries on slang, this one drawn from Robert L. Chapman's marvelous "Dictionary of American Slang (Third Edition)."
HUSTLE
(1) verb: By 1938: To hurry "We better hustle, the thing leaves in five miniutes"
(2) noun: "Put a little hustle in it now"
(3) verb: By 1888: To behave, play, perform, etc., very energetically and aggressively "The reason they're losing is they don't hustle"
(4) verb: by 1891: To beg "You'll hustle for an overcoat" -- J. Flynt
(5) verb: By 1930: To work as a prostitute " . . .whores that hustle all night long" -- Louis Armstrong
(6) verb: By 1887: To cheat, swindle, victimize "It took a hell of a caddy to hustle a pro and a greenskeeper" -- Saturday Evening Post
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