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Busy
Definitions
- 1 Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.
"Be careful crossing that busy street."
- 2 Engaged with or preoccupied by an activity or person.
"The director cannot see you now: he's busy."
- 3 Having much work to do; having much to get done.
"Near-synonym: swamped"
- 4 Having a lot going on; complicated or intricate.
"Flowers, stripes, and checks in the same fabric make for a busy pattern."
- 5 Officious; meddling.
"I will be hanged if some eternal villain, Some busy and insinuating rogue, Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, Have not devised this slander; I'll be hanged else."
- 1 crowded with or characterized by much activity wordnet
- 2 actively or fully engaged or occupied wordnet
- 3 intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner wordnet
- 4 (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) wordnet
- 5 overcrowded or cluttered with detail wordnet
- 1 A police officer. UK, derogatory, slang
"I remember playing on a building site once and coming across a five-pound note. I could hardly believe it when I spotted it poking out of the rubble. Excitedly, I ran straight home and gave it to my mum. I was hero of the hour until I got into trouble with the busies – the police – soon afterwards for pinching a bottle of milk from a float."
- 1 To make somebody busy or active; to occupy. reflexive, transitive, usually
"On my vacation I'll busy myself with gardening."
- 2 keep busy with wordnet
Etymology
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.
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.
From Middle English bisien, from Old English bisgian (“to occupy, employ, trouble, afflict”), from Proto-West Germanic *bisīgōn. Cognate with Old Frisian bisgia (“to use”).
See also for "busy"
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Unscramble this word: busy