Other forms: rustling, rustled, rustles
Rustle is the soft dry sound of light things moving against each other — leaves in a hedge, paper in a bag, a stiff skirt as somebody stands up. It is a quiet noise, and the word is half onomatopoeia: it sounds like what it means.
It works as both verb and noun, and the verb goes two ways: leaves rustle by themselves, and you rustle a newspaper deliberately. There are two idioms worth having. To rustle something up is to produce it quickly out of whatever is available, usually a meal. And to rustle cattle is to steal them, which is a wholly separate sense from the American West and has nothing to do with sound at all.
1verbrustleTo make the soft dry sound of leaves or paper moving.
“The wind rustled the trees along the drive.”
2nounsoftThat soft dry sound.
“There was a rustle in the hedge and then nothing.”
3verbstealTo steal cattle or horses.
“They were caught rustling sheep off the hill.”
rustle is a soft sound.
Rustle is a noise word and its origin is uncertain, but Old English had hristlian, to make a noise, and Scots still has reesle for crackling and rattling.
Old English
hrūxlian
Middle English
rustelen
English, today
rustle
Built from
From Middle English rustelen, russelen, of uncertain origin, but probably from Old English hrūxlian, hristlan, hrystlan, hristlian (“to make a noise”). Compare also Scots reesle (“to crackle; rattle; rustle”), West Frisian risselje, Dutch ritselen (“to rustle”), Afrikaans ritsel (“to rustle”), German rascheln (“to rustle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Everyday Verbs, Sounds & Noises