busk

• IPA^(key): /bʌsk/

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• Rhymes: -ʌsk

Borrowed from French busc, by dissimilation (from buste) from Italian busto. Doublet of bust.

busk (plural busks)

1. A strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset to stiffen it.
   • 1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie:

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

2. (by extension) A corset.
   • 1661, John Donne, To his Mistress going to Bed:

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

Etymology unknown

busk

1. (obsolete) A kind of linen.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 557:

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

From Middle English busken, from Old Norse búask.

busk (third-person singular simple present busks, present participle busking, simple past and past participle busked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.
   • c. 1724, William Hamilton, The Braes of Yarrow 2

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

   • 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:

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

2. (obsolete) To go; to direct one's course.
   • c. 1550, John Skelton, Skelton Laureate against the Scottes

     Ye might have busked you to Huntly-banks.

Apparently from French busquer or Spanish buscar.

busk (third-person singular simple present busks, present participle busking, simple past and past participle busked)

1. (intransitive) To solicit money by entertaining the public in the street or in public transport.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To sell articles such as obscene books in public houses etc.
   • 1827, Robert Pollok, The Course of Time:

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

3. (nautical) To tack, cruise about.

• busker

• Buks, skub

From Old Norse buskr, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz.

busk c (singular definite busken, plural indefinite buske)

1. bush

• “busk” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Old Norse buskr, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz. Compare with Danish busk, Swedish buske, Icelandic búskur, English bush, Dutch bos, German Busch.

busk m (definite singular busken, indefinite plural busker, definite plural buskene)

1. a bush or shrub

• kaffebusk
• solbærbusk

• “busk” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse buskr, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz. See above for comparisons.

busk m (definite singular busken, indefinite plural buskar, definite plural buskane)

1. a bush or shrub

• solbærbusk

• “busk” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-West Germanic *busk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz, probably from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to grow”). Compare Old Saxon busk, Old English busc, bysc, Old Norse buskr.

• IPA^(key): /bus̠k/

busk m

1. bush

• Middle High German: busch, bosch
  • German: Busch

Perhaps from Middle English bisquyte.

busk (plural buskès)

1. A thick, small cake made of white meal, spiced bread.

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 28