busk

/bəsk/

/bəsk/

Other forms: busked; busking; busks

To busk is to earn money by performing in public for tips. If you learn how to play the bagpipes, you could put on a kilt, go downtown, and busk.

Unlike a concert with an admission fee, when a musician busks, she puts a tip jar nearby. Passers-by can donate money if they want to, but the music is free for those who can't or don't want to pay. In the 1800s, to busk was "to offer goods for sale only in bars and taprooms," probably from a nautical meaning of busk, "cruise like a pirate" or "live a shiftless life."

Definitions of busk

1. verb

   play music in a public place and solicit money for it
   “three young men were busking in the plaza”

   type of:

   play

   play on an instrument