Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. street robbery; bag-snatching.

1818		W. Perry London Guide 32: This brings me to speak of that next species of robbery by those who are appropriately called Scamps, called hustling.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 102: Hustling — forcible robbery, by two or more thieves seizing their victim round the body, or at the collar.

2. selling objects, ideas, one’s services etc, esp. in an aggressive manner; also attrib.

1895		Mirror of Life 21 Sept. 2/1: JACK McAuliffe, the light-weight champion, and Jack Sheehan, he of ‘tipster’ fame, have formed a combination in which the former will do the thinking and the latter the hustling.
1905		Hull Dly Mail 5 Sept. 5/5: Hustling is not an end in itself, but simply a means to an end. It is no new American idea; the ancient Egyptians practised it [and] as competition has become keener, just so much has the hustler become more necessary.
1959		H.S. Thompson letter 3 June in Proud Highway (1997) 166: Keep hustling, hustling, hustling.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 52: I c’n make more’n that in a good day’s hustling, man.
1971		D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 90: They were just beginning a morning of hustling.
1988		Ice-T ‘High Rollers’ 🎵 They say I’m glamorizin’ the hustlin’ hood.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 58: The corner of Market and Powell is a tourist hub — and a prime hustling locale.

3. living by one’s wits; also as adj.

1896		H. Blossom Checkers 40: When they got me ‘on the tram,’ I had to go to hustlin’.
1911		Stanford Interior Jrnl (KY) 18 Apr. 5/4: Beazley bought two very handsome buggies [...] from R.M. Arnold, the hustling buggy manufacturer of Danville.
1925		Odum & Johnson Negro and His Songs (1964) 232: I’m gamblin’ for my Sady – she’s a lady; / I’m a hustlin’ coon, that’s what I am.
1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 165: He had put on his ‘hustling jacket’ and gone out to get her some [cocaine].
1940		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 30 Nov. 10/5: They [i.e. Harlem women] only know and play one game, hustling is their claim to fame.
1957		C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 58: ‘If you [...] don’t like the work in the Jumble post office or railways, for six pounds less taxes and insurance, then, man, you must hustle.’ ‘And what is your particular hustling?’.
1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 91: My old hustlin’ partner, John, he really knew the score, / he told me if I kept chippin’ I would soon be woe.
1969		R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 34: ‘Hustling’ is any activity other than legitimate employment that is aimed at making money.
1973		J. Yount Trapper’s Last Shot (1974) 80: Hustling is a matter of psychology, Jimbo.
1982		J. Ellroy Clandestine 211: [C]ontinuing to earn through construction work and golf hustling at least as much as Lorna did.

4. working as a prostitute; also adj.

1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 408: Hustling – streetwalking.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 114: ‘’Ow’s ’ustlin?’ ‘Worse’n hell [...] No more of dese sailor boys and shorefront stiffs . . . . I’m gettin respectable.’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 21: He could locate gold like a good hustling chick.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 34: We always talked about hustling. We used to play Hustlers’ Game. A girl made believe she was working the streets.
1966		C. Himes Run Man Run (1969) 69: Brock got the idea that she did a little hustling on the side.
1972		D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 69: hustling v. […] 3. prostituting.
1979		J. Rechy Rushes (1981) 15: Although this is not a hustling area, he is obviously bartering for sexmoney with an older man.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 15: Sorefooted hustling gals sat on the stuffed chairs and bamboo thrones.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] Hustling’s something prosttiutes do.

5. (US black) making a nervous sign at someone.

1964

R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 266: Hustling – making nervous sign at. Very different from common slang sense of term.