busk

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bʌsk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /bʊsk/
• Rhymes: -ʌsk

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, especially UK) To solicit money by entertaining the public in the street or in public transport.
2. (transitive, 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.

Borrowed from French busc, from Italian busco (“splinter”).

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, reflexive of búa (“to prepare”); compare bound for a derivation from búa's past participle and basken for a similar formation from an Old Norse reflexive.

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

1. (transitive, Northern England, Scotland) 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. (Northern England, Scotland) To go; to direct one's course.
   • c. 1550, John Skelton, Skelton Laureate against the Scottes:

     Ye might have busked you to Huntly-banks.

• Buks, skub

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

busk c (singular definite busken, plural indefinite buske)

1. bush

   Coordinate terms: træ, urt

• “busk” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “busk” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

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.

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *busk, from Proto-Germanic *buskaz.

• IPA^(key): /bus̠k/

busk m

1. bush

• Middle High German: busch, bosch
  • German: Busch
  • Luxembourgish: Bësch
  • Yiddish: בוש (bush)

From Middle English bisquyte, from Old French bescuit. Cognate with Scots bisket.

• IPA^(key): /bʊsk/
• (later) IPA^(key): /bosk/^[1]

busk (plural buskès)

1. A thick, small cake made of white meal, spiced bread.^[2]