grinding out the hustle

[KLPNO]

Hello everyone,

From the book Choose Your Story, Change Your Life by Kindra Hall.

Seth was a young, handsome guy grinding out the hustle in New York City. Whether it was the stress or the times, Seth had picked up a smoking habit. Multiple times a day, he’d step out of his mid- town office and grab a smoke on the street. He’d smoke in bars and at bus stops. He’d smoke socially and alone.

grind out phrasal verb - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced American Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of grind out phrasal verb in Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

grind something out​

to produce something in large quantities, often something that is not good or interesting

hustle noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of hustle noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com

1 [uncountable] busy noisy activity of a lot of people in one place

• We escaped from the hustle and bustle of the city for the weekend.

I have a feeling that "grind out the hustle" means something like "work", but I also suspect that it has some connotations.
Is it work hard or work reluctantly? Work unsuccessfully?

Or maybe it means something completely different?

 

[probus]

Hustle is definitely used to mean work but the drfinition you quoted is only one of the possible meanings of "grind out" and it does not apply in this context. In the passage you quoted "grind out" means to work persistently and unrelentingly. The difficulty of the work is unspecified. It may be easy or hard.

 

[KLPNO]

Hustle is definitely used to mean work but the drfinition you quoted is only one of the possible meanings of "grind out" and it does not apply in this context. In the passage you quoted "grind out" means to work persistently and unrelentingly. The difficulty of the work is unspecified. It may be easy or hard.

And I'd like to ask one more thing to be absolutely sure of the meaning.
I've found the following discussion on "grind out life" where one of the native speakers said:

grind out life

Hi, How would you rephrase "grind out life"? I just don't get a feel for this phrase, since "grind out" means a. to produce in a routine or mechanical way (and b. to extinguish by rubbing the lighted end against a hard surface) How do you "produce" life? Here's an example: Today's trend of...

forum.wordreference.com

pops91710: "You may often hear life or work referred to as the daily grind. A tedious, repetitive lifestyle."​

So my question is: Can "grinding out the hustle" imply that the work was also tedious and boring?

 

[Tdol]

The difficulty of the work is unspecified. It may be easy or hard.

I'd guess hard.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, it's hard, slow, and tedious. Think about grinding flour with a stone.