hustler

noun

hus·​tler ˈhə-slər 

plural hustlers

: a person who hustles: such as

a

: one who obtains money by fraud or deceit : scammer, swindler

A financial hustler who orchestrated the theft of $6.5 million from investors …

—Shayna Jacobs and Alec Tabak

… most of the eight major frauds Minkow helped uncover in the past year have involved hustlers trying to sell investments to church groups.

—Adam Zagorin

b

: one who lures less skillful players into competing at a gambling game

a pool hustler

This is where the chess hustlers have seized their opportunity. Camped out at the picnic tables in Harvard Square, these seasoned locals will play with you—for a price.

—Evan Zigmond

c

: an athlete who plays with alert energy and aggressiveness

By always being the teacher's pet, by being a hustler in football practice and by being the fringe member of many social groups but the leader of none, Kelly managed to mask his insecurities.

—Michael Reese

d

: sex worker

a male hustler

"Beat" is old carny slang. According to Beat Movement legend … , Ginsberg and Kerouac picked it up from a character named Herbert Huncke, a gay street hustler and drug addict from Chicago who began hanging around Times Square in 1939 …

—Louis Menand

Synonyms

• prostitute
• hooker [informal + disapproving]

Examples of hustler in a Sentence

policemen kept the street clean of hustlers

the ad for the sales job claims that for someone who's a real hustler, the sky's the limit

Recent Examples on the Web

The hustler mentality is big among resellers - talk about that mindset. —Adam Zagoria, Forbes.com, 30 June 2025

Jeezy’s raspy flow and motivational 16s served up trap to the masses and shifted the landscape of southern rap, while giving hustlers the playbook to corporate thuggin’. —Michael Saponara, Billboard, 27 June 2025

This is, after all, a publication that was founded in the early ’90s, born of a desire to champion the subversive, disruptive advent of the internet—and the hackers, hustlers, and blue-sky lunatics consumed by the possibilities of a digitized and interconnected planet. —Katie Drummond, Wired News, 19 May 2025

Many of the hustlers and fabulists who populate Crews’s fiction are typical American strivers. —Charlie Lee, Harpers Magazine, 18 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1789, in the meaning defined above