bustle

intr. & tr.v., -tled, -tling, -tles.

To move or cause to move energetically and busily.

n.

Excited and often noisy activity; a stir.

[Possibly variant of obsolete buskle, frequentative of busk, to prepare oneself, from Old Norse būask, reflexive of būa, to prepare.]

bus·tle² (bŭs'əl)
n.

1. A frame or pad to support and expand the fullness of the back of a woman's skirt.
2. A bow, peplum, or gathering of material at the back of a woman's skirt below the waist.

[Origin unknown.]

The simple dictionary description of a bustle is ‘a pad, or wire framework, worn beneath the skirt of a woman's dress, to expand it behind; a dress-improver’. This usage is found in the 1770s and is recorded in a letter to the Lady's Magazine of 1786. It is, essentially, a nineteenth-century term, used increasingly from the late 1820s until the disappearance of the bustle from fashionable dress in 1889. However, various aids to change the natural female anatomy at the back of the waist and around the hips had been devised from the fourteenth century onwards. These usually took the form of a padded roll tied around the waist and were depicted in contemporary engravings or caricatures. The practice of emphasizing one or more areas of the female anatomy is found throughout the history of fashionable dress and the bustle was only one in a considerable array of undergarments which assisted with this process. It is a wholly impractical structure which distorted the natural curves of the body. Today, examining surviving examples and reading the advertisements of the period, it is impossible not to admire the sheer ingenuity which informed the construction of an item destined not to be seen by anyone other than the wearer and her maid. Lightweight wire, collapsible steel, whalebone, horsehair, and inflatable gutta-percha were used at various times to create or strengthen bustles. They are a tribute to the nineteenth-century delight in new materials and techniques. Undoubtedly they were constricting but they are usually very light in weight and are, in their use of colour, pattern, and imaginative techniques, unintentionally, witty.

The rise and fall of the bustle spans nearly the whole of the nineteenth century. In the early years the high-waisted, fluid dresses only needed a small pad attached to the back of the waist, but this became fuller, and by 1815 it was a separate entity. Gradually, as the waistline reverted to a natural line in the 1820s and 1830s, the crescent-shaped pad became larger and could be layered with one or more additions of diminishing size. Rows of stiffened cotton, like starched frills, were also used or the two types were sometimes combined. By the late 1830s, when dress skirts were widening, a padding was inserted between the dress fabric and the lining to emphasize the area over the hips. This became a rounded, separate bustle once more between 1841 and 1846. By 1849 the discreet euphemism ‘dress-improver’ was in use, and by 1853 bustles were being made with rolls of crinoline (a mixture of horsehair and linen).

In the late 1860s, as fashions changed, leading to a flattening of the front of women's skirts but compensating by placing emphasis on back fullness, the crinolette (a streamlined, hooped petticoat with back emphasis only) and then the bustle gave support. Initially a few steel or whalebone strips were inserted into a petticoat to support the weight of the ruched-up back of the skirt, but a rounded structure of steel hoops, whalebone, or horsehair quickly became a permanent attachment to the top of the crinolette.

The terminology also changed with the introduction of the French word ‘tournure’ as yet another polite word for bustle. This was a structural, full-length petticoat with integral bustle, which emerged between 1870 and 1873. In 1871 it was reported that it rose ‘high above the waist and is of vast dimensions.’ A brief respite occurred in the mid to late 1870s until the final phase of the bustle began in 1881. It steadily increased in size until it reached its full magnitude in 1885 as an ugly but substantial shelf-like structure. These came in various styles and materials.

Full-length half crinolettes (like aprons but worn at the back and tied at the front) had frills of cloth, horizontal adjustable steels, horsehair padding; half-length versions had collapsible springs and, in line with the health-conscious reform lobby of the 1880s, ‘Health Braided Wire Bustles’ gained popularity. This American design was marketed as light, strong, pliable, and healthy; it came in several layered and rounded variants and sizes and was intended to support ‘the best shapes in the fashionable world’.

By 1890 the bustle had passed from fashion forever and although the term is still used it indicates back interest on a garment, such as bows, loops of fabric, a band of frilled, and layered fabric at the back of the waist — but not a structure under the garment.

— Valerie Cumming

Bibliography

• Carter, A. (1992). Underwear: the fashion history. Batsford, London.
• Newton, S. M. (1974). Health, art and reason: dress reformers of the nineteenth Century. John Murray, London.
• Probert, C. (1981). Lingerie in Vogue since 1910. Thames and Hudson, London

See also clothes; erogenous zones; fashion; female form.

verb

1. To move swiftly: bolt, bucket, dart, dash, festinate, flash, fleet, flit, fly, haste, hasten, hurry, hustle, pelt, race, rocket, run, rush, sail, scoot, scour, shoot, speed, sprint, tear, trot, whirl, whisk, whiz, wing, zip, zoom. Informal hotfoot, rip. Slang barrel, highball. Chiefly British nip. Idioms: get a move on, get cracking, go like lightning, go like the wind, hotfoot it, make haste, make time, make tracks, run like the wind, shake a leg, stepjumpon it. See move/halt.
2. To be nervously or uselessly active: fuss, putter. Informal mess around. See action/inaction, calm/agitation.

noun

Agitated, excited movement and activity: flurry, stir, whirl, whirlpool. See calm/agitation.

n

Definition: quick and busy activity
Antonyms: laziness, relaxation

---

IN BRIEF: To move very quickly; to hurry.

Grandma likes to bustle around the kitchen while the family eats dinner.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
1.
v. tr. - få til at skynde sig, sætte fut i
v. intr. - fare rundt, have travlt
n. - travlhed

2.
n. - tournure

Nederlands (Dutch)
drukte, gewoel, herrie, druk in de weer zijn, zich haastig bewegen

Français (French)
1.
v. tr. - faire dépêcher (qn)
v. intr. - s'affairer, s'activer
n. - remue-ménage, mouvement

2.
n. - (Hist, Mode) faux cul, tournure

Deutsch (German)
1.
v. - umhereilen, eifrig sein, sausen
n. - Betrieb, Trubel, hastige Geschäftigkeit, Übereifer

2.
n. - Bausch, Tournüre

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - πηγαινοέρχομαι όλο φούρια, κάνω (κάποιον) να βιαστεί
n. - φασαρία, φούρια

Italiano (Italian)
calca

Português (Portuguese)
v. - estar atarefado, apressar-se
n. - alvoroço (m), pressa (f), anquinhas (f pl)

Русский (Russian)
турнюр, суматоха, торопить

Español (Spanish)
1.
v. tr. - ajetrear, animar
v. intr. - hacer barullo, animarse
n. - ajetreo, animación, barullo, movimiento, trajín

2.
n. - diligencia oficiosa

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - gno, jäkta, flänga, sätta fart, jaga
n. - brådska, liv, larm, turnyr

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 催促, 使忙碌, 闹哄哄地忙乱, 充满, 奔忙, 忙乱, 喧嚣

2. 腰垫, 裙撑

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
v. tr. - 催促, 使忙碌
v. intr. - 鬧哄哄地忙亂, 充滿, 奔忙
n. - 忙亂, 喧囂

2.
n. - 腰墊, 裙撐

한국어 (Korean)
1.
v. tr. - ~을 서두르게 하다, ~을 소란하게 하다
v. intr. - 활발하게 움직이다, 법석을 떨다
n. - 야단 법석, 웅성거림

2.
n. - 허리받이

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 大騒ぎする, せわしく動く, せきたてる
n. - 大騒ぎ, ざわめき, バスル

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) نشط في العمل, تحرك بهمه (الاسم) نشاط و حركه, ضوضاء, اطار للفساتين‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮הקים רעש, זירז, העביד קשה‬
v. intr. - ‮עבד למראית-עין במרץ וביעילות, הקים רעש, התרוצץ, מיהר‬
n. - ‮פעילות, המולה, תכונה‬
n. - ‮כרית (מתחת לשמלה)‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.