= (1) an energetic resourceful man; and (2) a rowdy, a desperado: spec. (Western States) a cattle-lifter. Rustling = active, energetic, smart (q.v.).
1872. S. L. Clemens, Innocents at Home, 20. Pard, he was a rustler.
1882. Century Mag., Aug., 508. I'll rustle around and pick up something. Ibid. Rustle the things off that table. Ibid. To say that a man is a rustler is the highest indorsement a Dakotan can give. It means that he is pushing, energetic, smart, and successful.
1884. Century, xxxvii. 770. They're a thirsty crowd, an' it comes expinsive; but they're worth it, fer they're rustlers, ivery wan of thim.
1887. Morley Roberts, Western Avernus. I tell you he was a rustler . . . It means a worker, an energetic man, and no slouch can be a rustler.
1889. Cornhill, July, 62. I was out one day after antelope (I rustled all my meat, except a ham now and then as a luxury), when I happened to come across a large patch of sunflowers.
1889. Harper's Mag., lxxi. 190. Rustle now, boys, rustle! for you have a long and hard day's work before you.
1892. Scotsman, 7 May, 'Rustlers' and 'Regulators.' The lawless element . . . not content with stealing cattle, openly defied the authorities. In June . . . an expedition started . . . and the result was that sixty-one thieves were hanged, after a pitched battle between the cattle men and the rustlers.
Rusty, subs. (thieves').—An informer.
1840. Lytton, Paul Clifford, xxxiv. He'll turn a rusty, and scrag one of his pals!
Adj. (also Resty) (colloquial).—Ill-tempered; sullen; restive; insolent; or (Grose) 'out of use': whence to ride rusty or nab the rust: see Rust; and rusty-guts (B. E., Grose) = a churl.
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, 3941. Robyn the ribaudour For hise rusty wordes.
[?]. Coventry Myst. [Shakspeare Soc.], 47. Rustynes of synne is cawse of these wawys.
c. 1625. Court and Times Chas. I., 1. 36. In the meantime, there is much urging and spurring the parliament for supply and expedition, in both which they will prove somewhat rusty.
1649. Milton, Iconoclastes, xxiv. The master is too rusty or too rich to say his own prayers.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, ii. 293. This Nation long restive and rusty in ease and quiet.
1706. Ward, Wooden World, 22. If he stand on his Punctilio's . . . he is immediately proclaimed throughout the Fleet a reisty Puppy.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 74. They're not to blame for being crusty, 'Twould make a Highlander ride rusty.
d. 1794. Colman, The Gentleman, No. 5. His brown horse, Orator, took rust, ran out of the course, and was distanced.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, xxviii. The people got rusty about it, and would not deal. Ibid. (1821), Pirate, xxxix. Even Dick Fletcher rides rusty on me now and then.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. . . . If then she [a cat] turns rusty . . . he'll [a monkey] . . . give her a nip with his teeth.
1860. Punch, xxxix. 177. He don't care in whose teeth he runs rusty.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, xlv. They watched the yard till dusk, when its proprietor ran rusty and turned them out.
1864. Eton School Days, xix. What is the good of turning rusty? with me, too. I haven't done anything.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xi. Company that's got no more orders to give, and wants to turn up rusty to them that has, had better be making room for filling it.
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, vii. 16. Confound it, Deacon, Not rusty.
Rusty-fusty-dusty, adj. and adv.
(old colloquial).—Begrimed;
malodorous and dirty.
1630. Taylor, Works, ii. 24. Our cottage that for want of use was musty, And most extremely rusty-fusty-dusty.
