Link Centre Dictionary

busy

UK/ˈbɪz.i/ US/ˈbɪzi/ very common slang uk
adjective (5) verb (1)

adjective

1.

actively or fully engaged or occupied

  • “busy with her work”
  • “a busy man”
  • “too busy to eat lunch”
  • “the line is busy”
Antonyms
Similar
2.

overcrowded or cluttered with detail

  • “a busy painting”
  • “a fussy design”
Synonyms
Similar
3.

intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner

  • “an interfering old woman”
  • “bustling about self-importantly making an officious nuisance of himself”
  • “busy about other people”
Synonyms
Similar
4.

crowdedwith or characterized by much activity

  • “a very busy week”
  • “a busy life”
  • “a busy street”
  • “a busy seaport”
Similar
5.

(of facilities such as telephones or lavatories) unavailable for use by anyone else or indicating unavailability; (`engaged' is a British term for a busy telephone line)

  • “her line is busy”
  • “receptionists”
  • “;”
  • “;”
Synonyms
Similar

verb

1.

keep busy with

  • “She busies herself with her butterfly collection”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bisiġ (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisīg (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”). The spelling with ⟨u⟩ represents the pronunciation of the West Midland and Southern dialects while the Modern English pronunciation with /ɪ/ is from the dialects of the East Midlands.

Phrases

  • busy as a beaver
  • busy as a bee
  • busy as a dyke in a hardware store
  • busy as a nailer
  • busy as a one-armed paper hanger
  • busy as a one-armed paperhanger
  • busy beaver
  • busy beaver function

Related words

Word family

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See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.