Business

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: busi=ness

CIDE DICTIONARY

Business, n. [From Busy.].

•  That which busies one, or that which engages the time, attention, or labor of any one, as his principal concern or interest, whether for a longer or shorter time; constant employment; regular occupation; as, the business of life; business before pleasure.  [1913 Webster]

  "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"  [1913 Webster]
•  Any particular occupation or employment engaged in for livelihood or gain, as agriculture, trade, art, or a profession.  Prescott.  [1913 Webster]
•  Financial dealings; buying and selling; traffic in general; mercantile transactions.  [1913 Webster]

  "It seldom happens that men of a studious turn acquire any degree of reputation for their knowledge of business."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which one has to do or should do; special service, duty, or mission.  [1913 Webster]

  "The daughter of the King of France,
  On serious business, craving quick despatch,
  Importunes personal conference."  [1913 Webster]

  "What business has the tortoise among the clouds?"  [1913 Webster]
•  Affair; concern; matter; -- used in an indefinite sense, and modified by the connected words.  [1913 Webster]

  "It was a gentle business, and becoming
  The action of good women."  [1913 Webster]

  "Bestow
  Your needful counsel to our business."  [1913 Webster]
•  The position, distribution, and order of persons and properties on the stage of a theater, as determined by the stage manager in rehearsal.  [1913 Webster]
•  Care; anxiety; diligence.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

To do one's business, to ruin one. [Colloq.] Wycherley. -- To make (a thing) one's business, to occupy one's self with a thing as a special charge or duty. [Colloq.] -- To mean business, to be earnest. [Colloq.]

Syn. -- Affairs; concern; transaction; matter; engagement; employment; calling; occupation; trade; profession; vocation; office; duty.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Business, n.
1 one's regular occupation, profession, or trade.
2 a thing that is one's concern.
3 a a task or duty. b a reason for coming (what is your business?).
4 serious work or activity (get down to business).
5 derog. a an affair, a matter (sick of the whole business). b a structure (a lath-and-plaster business).
6 a thing or series of things needing to be dealt with (the business of the day).
7 buying and selling; trade (good stroke of business).
8 a commercial house or firm.
9 Theatr. action on stage.
10 a difficult matter (what a business it is!; made a great business of it).

Idiom

business card a card printed with one's name and professional details. the business end colloq. the functional part of a tool or device. business park an area designed to accommodate businesses and light industry. business person a businessman or businesswoman. business studies training in economics, management, etc. has no business to has no right to. in business
1 trading or dealing.
2 able to begin operations.
in the business of
1 engaged in.
2 intending to (we are not in the business of surrendering). like nobody's business colloq. extraordinarily. make it one's business to undertake to. mind one's own business not meddle. on business with a definite purpose, esp. one relating to one's regular occupation. send a person about his or her business dismiss a person; send a person away.

Etymology

OE bisignis (as BUSY, -NESS)

THESAURUS

Business

Aktiengesellschaft, acting, action, activeness, activism, activity, affair, aktiebolag, allegiance, area, art, assigned task, attempt, balance of trade, big business, body corporate, bounden duty, buffoonery, burden, business dealings, business establishment, call of duty, calling, career, career building, careerism, cartel, chamber of commerce, characterization, charge, combine, commerce, commercial, commercial affairs, commercial enterprise, commercial relations, commitment, compagnie, company, concern, concernment, conglomerate, conglomerate corporation, consolidating company, consortium, contract, copartnership, corporate body, corporation, craft, custom, deal, dealing, dealings, dedication, deference, devoir, devotion, dingus, diversified corporation, dofunny, doing, doings, duties and responsibilities, duty, effort, employment, engagement, enterprise, establishment, ethics, fair trade, fealty, firm, free trade, function, gadget, gag, game, gizmo, goings-on, ham, hammy acting, handicraft, hoke, hokum, holding company, homage, hootenanny, house, imperative, impersonation, industrial, industry, intercourse, interest, issue, jigger, job, joint-stock association, joint-stock company, lifework, line, line of business, line of duty, line of work, lookout, loyalty, market, marketing, matter, mercantile, mercantile business, merchant, merchantry, metier, militancy, mimesis, mimicking, mimicry, miming, mission, motion, movement, multilateral trade, mummery, must, mystery, number, obligation, occasions, occupation, office, onus, operating company, operation, organization, ought, outfit, overacting, palaver, pantomiming, partnership, patter, performance, performing, personation, place, plan, playacting, playing, plunderbund, point, political activism, pool, portrayal, practice, problem, proceeding, proceedings, profession, program, project, projection, proposition, proprietorship, province, public utility, pursuit, question, racket, reciprocal trade, representation, respect, responsibility, restraint of trade, retail, role, self-imposed duty, slapstick, small business, specialization, specialty, stage business, stage directions, stage presence, stir, stock company, stunt, subject, syndicate, taking a role, task, the business world, the marketplace, thing, thingumajig, topic, trade, trade association, trading, traffic, transaction, truck, trust, undertaking, unilateral trade, utility, venture, vocation, walk, walk of life, wholesale, work

ROGET THESAURUS

Business

Pursuit

N pursuit, pursuing, prosecution, pursuance, enterprise, business, adventure, quest, scramble, hue and cry, game, hobby, still-hunt, chase, hunt, battue, race, steeple chase, hunting, coursing, venation, venery, fox chase, sport, sporting, shooting, angling, fishing, hawking, shikar (Geog loc:India), pursuer, hunter, huntsman, shikari (Geog loc:India), sportsman, Nimrod, hound, pursuing, in quest of, in pursuit, in full cry, in hot pursuit, on the scent, in pursuance of, after, Int, tallyho!, yoicks!, soho!.

Business

N business, occupation, employment, pursuit, what one is doing, what one is about, affair, concern, matter, case, matter in hand, irons in the fire, thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care, duty, part, role, cue, province, function, lookout, department, capacity, sphere, orb, field, line, walk, walk of life, beat, round, routine, race, career, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty, industry, art, industrial arts, craft, mystery, handicraft, trade, exercise, work, avocation, press of business, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally Adj, a business with an income at its heels, amoto quaeramus seria ludo, par negotiis neque supra.

Action

N action, performance, doing perpetration, exercise, excitation, movement, operation, evolution, work, labor, praxis, execution, procedure, handicraft, business, agency, deed, act, overt act, stitch, touch, gest transaction, job, doings, dealings, proceeding, measure, step, maneuver, bout, passage, move, stroke, blow, coup, coup de main, coup d'etat, tour de force, feat, exploit, achievement, handiwork, workmanship, manufacture, stroke of policy, actor, doing, acting, in action, in harness, on duty, in operation, in the act, in the midst of, in the thick of, red-handed, in flagrante delicto, while one's hand is in, action is eloquence, actions speak louder than words, actum aiunt ne agas, awake, arise, or be forever fall'n, dii pia facta vident, faire sans dire, fare fac, fronte capillata post est occasio calva, our deeds are sometimes better than our thoughts, the great end of life is not knowledge but action, thought is the soul of act, vivre-ce nest pas respirer c'est agir, we live in deeds not years.

Conduct

N conduct, behavior, deportment, comportment, carriage, maintien, demeanor, guise, bearing, manner, observance, dealing, transaction, business, tactics, game, game plan, policy, polity, generalship, statesmanship, seamanship, strategy, strategics, plan, management, husbandry, housekeeping, housewifery, stewardship, menage, regime, economy, economics, political economy, government, execution, manipulation, treatment, campaign, career, life, course, walk, race, record, course of conduct, line of conduct, line of action, line of proceeding, role, process, ways, practice, procedure, modus operandi, MO, method of operating, method, path, conducting, strategical, businesslike, practical, executive.

Barter

N barter, exchange, scorse, truck system, interchange, a Roland for an Oliver, quid pro quo, commutation, composition, Indian gift, trade, commerce, mercature, buying and selling, bargain and sale, traffic, business, nundination, custom, shopping, commercial enterprise, speculation, jobbing, stockjobbing, agiotage, brokery, deal, dealing, transaction, negotiation, bargain, free trade, commercial, mercantile, trading, interchangeable, marketable, staple, in the market, for sale, wholesale, retail, across the counter, cambio non e furto.

Eventuality

N eventuality, event, occurrence, incident, affair, matter, thing, episode, happening, proceeding, contingency, juncture, experience, fact, matter of fact, naked fact, bare facts, just the facts, phenomenon, advent, business, concern, transaction, dealing, proceeding, circumstance, particular, casualty, accident, adventure, passage, crisis, pass, emergency, contingency, consequence, opportunity (occasion), the world, life, things, doings, affairs in general, things in general, affairs in general, the times, state of affairs, order of the day, course of things, tide of things, stream of things, current of things, run of things, march of things, course of events, ups and downs of life, vicissitudes of life, chapter of accidents, situation, happening, going on, doing, current, in the wind, in the air, afloat, on foot, afoot, on the tapis, at issue, in question, incidental, eventful, stirring, bustling, full of incident, memorable, momentous, signal, eventually, in the event of, in case, just in case, in the course of things, as things, times go, as the world goes, wags, as the tree falls, cat jumps, as it may turn out, happen, that's the way the ball bounces, that's the way the cookie crumbles, you never know what may turn up, you never know what the future will bring, the plot thickens, breasts the blows of circumstance, so runs round of life from hour to hour, sprinkled along the waste of years.

Topic

N topic, subject of thought, material for thought, food for the mind, mental pabulum, subject, subject matter, matter, theme, noemata, topic, what it is about, thesis, text, business, affair, matter in hand, argument, motion, resolution, head, chapter, case, point, proposition, theorem, field of inquiry, moot point, problem, thought of, uppermost in the mind, in petto, under consideration, in question, in the mind, on foot, on the carpet, on the docket, on the tapis, relative to.