abuzz

comparative more abuzz · superlative most abuzz · alternative a-buzz

1. postpositionalCharacterized by a high level of activity or gossip; in a buzz (“feeling or rush of energy or excitement”), buzzing.

   Now what a-devil has set this hornet's nest of theirs abuzz so suddenly?

   1902, Francis Lynde, “How a King’s Trooper Became a Wastrel”, in The Master of Appleby: […], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 289

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   The court was all astir and a-buzz, when the black sheep—whom many fell away from in dread—pressed him into an obscure corner among the crowd.

   1859, Charles Dickens, “The Game Made”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 212

   There's too many women in the house for me: I hate the sound of women's voices; they're always either a-buzz or a-squeak, always either a-buzz or a-squeak.

   1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Night-school and the Schoolmaster”, in Adam Bede […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book second, page 124

   The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz with excited arrivals.

   1879, T. DeWitt Talmage [i.e., Thomas De Witt Talmage], “The Sins of Summer Watering Places”, in The Masque Torn Off, Chicago, Ill.: J. Fairbanks & Co. [et al.], →OCLC, page 171

   The town was abuzz with excitement for an hour, when the news became stale.

   1913 July, Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, “The Long Chance: The Tale of a Hat Ranch”, in Charles K[ellogg] Field, editor, Sunset: The Pacific Monthly, volume 31, number 1, San Francisco, Calif.: Southern Pacific Company, →OCLC, page 131, column 2

   It was coming up on the cusp of July and August, and he remembered boyhood summers on the mountain's slopes abuzz with blackflies and syrupy heat.

   2005 June, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006, →ISBN

   Synonyms: active, agile, airy, alive, animate, animated, brisk, busy