busk

present singular third person busks · participle present busking · participle past busked · past busked

1. UKespeciallyintransitiveTo solicit money by entertaining the public in the street or in public transport.
2. obsoletetransitiveTo sell articles such as obscene books in public houses etc.

   The frothy orator, who busked his tales In quackish pomp of noisy words

   1827, Robert Pollok, The Course of Time

3. nauticalTo tack, cruise about.

plural busks

1. A strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset to stiffen it.

   Could see her in the bedroom from the hearth unclamping the busk of her stays.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 8: Laestrygonians]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 149

   1 more example

   Her long slit sleeves, stiffe buske, puffe verdingall, / Is all that makes her thus angelicall.

   1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie

2. broadlyA corset.

   Off with that happy busk, which I envie, / That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.

   1661, John Donne, To his Mistress going to Bed

1. obsoleteA kind of linen.

   Busk, a kind of table linen, occurs first in 1458, and occasionally afterwards.

   1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 557

present singular third person busks · participle present busking · participle past busked · past busked

1. Northern EnglandScotlandtransitiveTo prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.

   Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride.

   c. 1724, William Hamilton, The Braes of Yarrow 2

   1 more example

   The watch stert up and drew their weapons bright / And busk'd them bold to battle and to fight.

   1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC

2. Northern EnglandScotlandTo go; to direct one's course.

   Ye might have busked you to Huntly-banks.

   c. 1550, John Skelton, Skelton Laureate against the Scottes

1. A feast of first fruits among the Creek tribe of Native Americans, celebrated when the corn is ripe enough to be eaten.

plural Busks

1. A surname.

1. A city in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine.