busk

• IPA^(key): /bʌsk/
• Rhymes: -ʌsk

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

busk (plural busks)

1. A strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset to stiffen it.
   • Marston

     Her long slit sleeves, stiff busk, puff verdingall, / Is all that makes her thus angelical.

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 (plural busks)

1. (obsolete) A kind of linen.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 4, p. 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. To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.
   • Hamilton

     Busk you, busk you, my bonny, bonny bride.

   • Fairfax

     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.
   • Skelton

     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. (nautical) To tack, cruise about.

• busker

• Buks

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

• 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-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