Officious

adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Obliging, attentive, eager to please. obsolete

    "Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officious attention!"

  2. 2
    Offensively intrusive or interfering in offering advice and services.

    "The help tended to be officious, the rules, if heeded, restrictive, and the management meddlesome."

Adjective
  1. 1
    intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
interferingaggressiveboldbusybusybusybodied

Example

More examples

"Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officious attention!"

Etymology

15th century, from Middle English offycyous, from Latin officiōsus (“kindly”), from officium (“service”).

Related phrases

officious intermeddler

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