A busk (also spelled busque) is a rigid element of a corset at the centre front of the garment. Two types exist, one- and two-part busks. Single-piece busks were used in "stays" and bodices from the sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries and were intended to keep the front of the corset or bodice straight and upright. They were typically made of wood, ivory, or bone slipped into a pocket and tied in place with a lace called the busk point. These busks were often carved and decorated, or inscribed with messages, and were popular gifts from men to women during courtship. Women could also give male suitors their busk-points, which were highly intimate and sexualised tokens of affection.