▪ I. bustling, vbl. n.
(ˈbʌslɪŋ)
[f. bustle v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of the verb bustle.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 7 Let the yoouth..not continew such bustling, backbiting, with facing and defacing one another. 1625 K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis (1636) 681 The shore resounded at..the bustling of the Cables. 1628 Earle Microcosm. (Arb.) 88 An eager bustling, that rather keepes adoe, than do's any thing. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xviii. 91 The most sudden, and rough busling in of a new Truth..does never breake the Peace. 1662 Fuller Worthies iii. 109 In his time was much busling in the University, about an Apocrypha Book. 1674 Burnet Royal Martyr &c. (1710) 41 This doth..discharge all busling and fighting on the pretence of Religion. 1843 Carlyle Past & Pr. (1858) 167 His life is but a bustling and a justling. 1865 Kingsley Herew. xv. (1877) 186 There was bustling to and fro of her and her maids. |
▪ II. ˈbustling, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That bustles; full of bustle or agitation.
| 1597 Drayton Mortimer. 25 A bustling tempests rouzing blasts. a 1611 Chapman Iliad xiii. 312 From hollow bustling winds engendered storms arise. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. (1843) 49/2 Sir Harry Vane was a busy and a bustling man. 1823 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 14/2 A little merry bustling clergyman. 1826 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 357 note, The rustling bustling silk gown, redolent in every fold of clerical dignity. 1881 J. Hawthorne Fort. Fool i. xiv, The bustling period of the day. |
Hence ˈbustlingly adv.
| 1822 Scott Nigel xvii, Reginald Lowestoffe was bustlingly officious and good-natured. 1885 D. C. Murray Rainb. Gold II. iii. iii. 78 He searched bustlingly for his hat. |