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

a hustler on the soccer field

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 of hustler

• prostitute
• hooker

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

Politicians of all stripes have often been seen as hustlers and there is little doubt that at least a couple currently operating could be put into that category. —Roger Trapp, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026

Chess, church and barbecue Oden had a reputation as a chess hustler. —Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Twin Cities, 31 May 2026

Zulfi is an iconoclast and a hustler, a man who dreams of opening a Muslims-only version of Uber and who, even in the face of Shah’s elitism and English society’s broader wariness, holds onto an unshakable optimism. —Joe Reid, Vulture, 29 May 2026

There also appears to have been no oversight at the Palmetto State Bank, where Murdaugh’s embezzlement co-conspirator Russell Laffitte shuffled their victims’ money around like a street hustler running a three-card-monte table. —James Lasdun, New Yorker, 26 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1789, in the meaning defined above