busy

comparative busier · superlative busiest · alternative obsolete busie

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

   Be careful crossing that busy street.

   3 more examples

   To-morrow is a busy day.

   c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

   Although they had but that moment left the school behind them, they were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city, where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the strife and tumult of a real city were.[…]They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation, and its bad repute.

   1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the page number)”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC

   With hours to go before their labor contract expired, longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts prepared on Monday to go on strike at midnight, halting most activity at some of the busiest U.S. ports.

   2024 September 30, Peter Eavis, “Counteroffers Exchanged in Effort to Avert U.S. Dock Strike”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 01 Oct 2024

   Synonyms: heavy, bustling

2. Engaged with or preoccupied by an activity or person.

   Go away, I’m busy sleeping!

   5 more examples

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

   Her telephone has been busy all day.

   He is busy with piano practice.

   Ramzi is busy getting ready for meetings.

   And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended in a week or a fortnight’s time to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him to go to the sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle or a tortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh. But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time; but after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme: then I asked him if he had given his father any bread.

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

3. Having much work to do; having much to get done.

   Near-synonym: swamped

   1 more example

   Finding the time to work out and cook healthy meals is easily pushed to the wayside in our ordinary, busy lives.

   2015 June 19, Jennifer Cohen, “Always busy? 8 ways to stay fit”, in CNN, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2025

   Synonyms: 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.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], line 130

plural busies · alternative obsolete busie

1. UKderogatoryslangLiverpoolA police officer.

   1 more example

   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.

   2016, Chris Graham, Five Minutes of Amazing: My Journey Through Dementia, London: Sphere, →ISBN, page 30

present singular third person busies · participle present busying · participle past busied · past busied

1. reflexivetransitiveusuallyTo make somebody busy or active; to occupy.

   The work busied me all afternoon.

   3 more examples

   On my vacation I'll busy myself with gardening.

   They busied themselves with the tea.

   2022, Liam McIlvanney, The Heretic, page 114

   And while his fellow musicians spent their evenings smoking marijuana, Alan Greenspan busied himself by swotting up on economics and doing the band's accounts.

   2026 June 22, Sam Woodhouse, “Alan Greenspan, architect of the modern American economy, dies aged 100”, in BBC News