Forebusy

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To busy beforehand; preoccupy. nonstandard, rare, transitive

    "Springs up to know all life, the secrets learn / Of science and time's truths arcane; projects / Evil would fulfil, that thus forebusied, soul, / All virtue of self-ascription to its Lord Might lose."

Example

More examples

"Springs up to know all life, the secrets learn / Of science and time's truths arcane; projects / Evil would fulfil, that thus forebusied, soul, / All virtue of self-ascription to its Lord Might lose."

Etymology

From Old English forebiseġian, forebisġian, equivalent to fore- + busy.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.