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What is "hustings"

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hustings
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hustings
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But it is unlikely to happen at the hustings or in the run up to the election.
▪ But there seemed nothing wrong with the head of government appearing to be the challenger on the hustings.
▪ He remains a formidable political operator and is usually at his best on the hustings.
▪ Midnight Special's contribution to the hustings was to make the politicians seem almost human.
▪ Nationally, for the politicians on the hustings won't be so simple.
▪ Self-denial and self-help, however, would make a poor rallying cry for the hustings.
▪ When he stood for Parliament numbers of poor people crowded round the hustings demanding the payment of outstanding bills.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hustings

Hustings \Hus"tings\, n. pl. [OE. husting an assembly, coucil, AS. h?sting; of Scand. origin; cf. Icel. h?s?ing; h?s home + ?ing thing, assembly, meeting; akin to Dan. & Sw. ting, E. thing. See House, and Thing.]

  1. A court formerly held in several cities of England; specif., a court held in London, before the lord mayor, recorder, and sheriffs, to determine certain classes of suits for the recovery of lands within the city. In the progress of law reform this court has become unimportant.
    --Mozley & W.

  2. Any one of the temporary courts held for the election of members of the British Parliament.

  3. The platform on which candidates for Parliament formerly stood in addressing the electors. [Eng.]

    When the rotten hustings shake In another month to his brazen lies.
    --Tennyson.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hustings

Old English husting "meeting, court, tribunal," from Old Norse husðing "council," from hus "house" (see house (n.)) + ðing "assembly" (see thing); so called because it was a meeting of the men who formed the "household" of a nobleman or king. The native Anglo-Saxon word for this was folc-gemot. The plural became the usual form c.1500; sense of "temporary platform for political speeches" developed by 1719, apparently from London's Court of Hustings, presided over by the Lord Mayor, which was held on a platform in the Guildhall. This sense broadened to encompass the whole election process.

Wiktionary
hustings

n. 1 A platform where candidates in an election give speeches; a husting. 2 (context by extension English) An election campaign. 3 (plural of husting nodot=1 English)Category:English plurals (qualifier: assembly).

WordNet
hustings

n. the activities involved in political campaigning (especially speech making)

Usage examples of "hustings".

Better got up gentlemen than the other cousins to ride over to polling-booths and hustings here and there, and show themselves on the side of England, it would be hard to find.

But after a very few sentences of figurative eloquence, the pink-faced gentleman got from denouncing those who interrupted him in the mob, to exchanging defiances with the gentlemen on the hustings.