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Hustle vs Mess - What's the difference?

hustle | mess |

In intransitive terms the difference between hustle and mess

is that hustle is to rush or hurry while mess is to interfere.

In transitive terms the difference between hustle and mess

is that hustle is to bundle, to stow something quickly while mess is to throw into confusion.

hustle

English

Verb

  • To rush or hurry.
  • I'll have to hustle to get there on time.
  • * 1922 , (Sinclair Lewis), Chapter 12
  • Men in dairy lunches were hustling' to gulp down the food which cooks had ' hustled to fry
  • To con or deceive; especially financially.
  • The guy tried to hustle me into buying into a bogus real estate deal.
  • To bundle, to stow something quickly.
  • * 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards.
  • To dance the hustle, a disco dance.
  • To play deliberately badly at a game or sport in an attempt to encourage players to challenge.
  • To sell sex, to work as a pimp.
  • To be a prostitute, to exchange use of one's body for sexual purposes for money.
  • (informal) To put a lot of effort into one's work.
  • To push someone roughly, to crowd, to jostle.
  • *
  • There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A state of busy activity.
  • A type of disco dance.
  • Derived terms

    * hustle and bustle * hustler * hustly

    Anagrams

    *

    References

    mess

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (m); see also (m).

    Noun

    (es)
  • (obsolete) Mass; church service.
  • A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
  • A mess of pottage.
  • * Milton
  • At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes .
  • A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common; especially, persons in the military or naval service who eat at the same table.
  • the wardroom mess
  • * 1610 , , IV. iv. 11:
  • But that our feasts / In every mess have folly, and the feeders / Digest it with accustom,
  • A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
  • (Latimer)
  • (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
  • Derived terms
    * Eton mess * lose the number of one's mess * mess hall * mess up * Mills Mess

    Verb

  • (label) To take meals with a mess.
  • (label) To belong to a mess.
  • (label) To eat (with others).
  • (label) To supply with a mess.
  • Etymology 2

    Perhaps a corruption of (etyl) , compare (muss), or derived from Etymology 1 "mixed foods, as for animals".

    Noun

    (-)
  • A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder.
  • (label) A large quantity or number.
  • (label) Excrement.
  • Synonyms
    * see also

    Verb

    (es)
  • (label) To make a mess of.
  • (label) To throw into confusion.
  • (label) To interfere.
  • Derived terms
    (terms derived from "mess") * messy * mess around * mess up * mess with

    References

    *

    Anagrams

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