busy

From Middle English bisy, busie, from Old English bysiġ, *biesiġ, bisiġ (“busy, occupied, diligent”), from Proto-Germanic *bisigaz (“diligent; zealous; busy”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian biesich (“active, diligent, hard-working, industrious”), Dutch bezig (“busy”), Low German besig (“busy”), Old Frisian bisgia (“to use”), Old English bisgian (“to occupy, employ, trouble, afflict”). 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.[1]

• enPR: bĭz'i, IPA^(key): /ˈbɪzi/

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• Rhymes: -ɪzi

busy (comparative busier, superlative busiest)

1. Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.
   • Shakespeare

     To-morrow is a busy day.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:busy.

   We crossed a busy street.

2. Engaged in activity or by someone else.
   • 1967, Sleigh, Barbara, Jessamy, 1993 edition, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 18:

     In fact she was so busy doing all the things that anyone might, who finds themselves alone in an empty house, that she did not notice at first when it began to turn dusk and the rooms to grow dim.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:busy.

   The director cannot see you now: he's busy.

   Her telephone has been busy all day.

   He is busy with piano practice.

   They are busy getting ready for the annual meeting.

3. Having a lot going on; complicated or intricate.

   Flowers, stripes, and checks in the same fabric make for a busy pattern.

4. Officious; meddling.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice, IV. ii. 130:

     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.

   • For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:busy.

• swamped

• busy as a beaver
• busy as a bee
• busybody
• busyness
• busy work

busy (third-person singular simple present busies, present participle busying, simple past and past participle busied)

1. (transitive) To make somebody busy or active; to occupy.
   • On my vacation I'll busy myself with gardening.
2. (transitive) To rush somebody. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• bebusy
• forebusy
• overbusy
• unbusy

busy (plural busies)

1. (slang, Britain, Liverpudlian, derogatory) A police officer.

• buys

busy (inflected form bisiere, comparative bisiest)

1. Alternative form of bisy

• “bisi (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 20 June 2018.