busk

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
busk1

▶verb

• 1 play music in the street for voluntary donations.

• 2 (busk it) informal improvise.

– derivatives
busker noun.

– origin C17 (in the naut. sense ‘cruise about’): from obs. Fr. busquer ‘seek’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
busk2

▶noun historical a stiffening strip for a corset.

– origin C16: from Fr. busc, from Ital. busco ‘splinter’.