Definition of "busk"

busk¹

/bʌsk/

verb
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. (intransitive, obsolete) To sell articles such as obscene books in public houses etc.
  Quotations
  The frothy orator, who busked his tales In quackish pomp of noisy words
  1827, Robert Pollok, The Course of Time
3. (nautical) To tack, cruise about.

busk²

/bʌsk/

noun
plural busks
1. A strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset to stiffen it.
  Quotations
  Her long slit sleeves, stiffe buske, puffe verdingall, / Is all that makes her thus angelicall.
  1598, John Marston, The Scourge of Villanie
2. (by extension) A corset.
  Quotations
  Off with that happy busk, which I envie, / That still can be, and still can stand so nigh.
  1661, John Donne, To his Mistress going to Bed

busk³

/bʌsk/

noun
1. (obsolete) A kind of linen.
  Quotations
  Busk, a kind of table linen, occurs first in 1458, and occasionally afterwards.
  1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 557

busk⁴

/bʌsk/

verb
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.
  Quotations
  Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride.
  c. 1724, William Hamilton, The Braes of Yarrow 2
  The watch stert up and drew their weapons bright / And busk'd them bold to battle and to fight.
  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
2. (Northern England, Scotland) To go; to direct one's course.
  Quotations
  Ye might have busked you to Huntly-banks.
  c. 1550, John Skelton, Skelton Laureate against the Scottes