• Business

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ˈbɪzËŒnÉ™s/ or
    • Hyphenation: busi + ness

    Origin

    From Middle English busines, bisynes, from Old English bisiġnes ("business, busyness"), equivalent to busy + -ness. Compare also busyness.

    Full definition of business

    Noun

    business

    (countable and uncountable; plural businesss)
    1. (countable) A specific commercial enterprise or establishment.
      I was left my father's business.
      • 2013-06-22, T time, The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.
    2. (countable) A person's occupation, work, or trade.
      He is in the motor business.
      I'm going to Las Vegas on business.
    3. (uncountable) Commercial, industrial, or professional activity.
      He's such a poor cook, I can't believe he's still in business!
      We do business all over the world.
    4. (uncountable) The volume or amount of commercial trade.
      Business has been slow lately.
      They did nearly a million dollars of business over the long weekend.
      • 2013-05-25, No hiding place, In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.
    5. (uncountable) One's dealings; patronage.
      I shall take my business elsewhere.
    6. (uncountable) Private commercial interests taken collectively.
      This proposal will satisfy both business and labor.
      • 2013-08-10, Schumpeter, Cronies and capitols, Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.
    7. (uncountable) The management of commercial enterprises, or the study of such management.
      I studied business at Harvard.
    8. (countable) A particular situation or activity.
      This UFO stuff is a mighty strange business.
    9. (countable) An objective or a matter needing to be dealt with.
      Our principal business here is to get drunk.
      Let's get down to business.
    1. (uncountable) Something involving one personally.
      That's none of your business.
    2. (uncountable, parliamentary procedure) Matters that come before a body for deliberation or action.
      If that concludes the announcements, we'll move on to new business.
    3. (travel, uncountable) Business class, the class of seating provided by airlines between first class and coach.
      • Gates, who always flew business or coach, didn't particularly like the high air fares Nishi was charging to Microsoft,...
    4. (acting) Action carried out with a prop or piece of clothing, usually away from the focus of the scene.
      • The business with the hat is a fine example of the difficulty of distinguishing between 'natural' and 'formal' acting.
    5. (countable, rare) The collective noun for a group of ferrets.
      • I'm sure his goons will go through the ship like a business of ferrets, and they'll want to look in our baggage.
    6. (uncountable, slang, British) Something very good; top quality. (possibly from "the bee's knees")
      These new phones are the business!
    7. (slang, uncountable) Excrement, particularly that of a non-human animal.
      Your ferret left his business all over the floor.
      As the cart went by, its horse lifted its tail and did its business.

    Derived terms

    Terms derived from business (noun)

    Adjective

    business

    1. Of, to, pertaining to or utilized for purposes of conducting trade, commerce, governance, advocacy or other professional purposes.
    2. "Please do not use this phone for personal calls; it is a business phone."
    3. Professional, businesslike, having concern for good business practice.
    4. Supporting business, conducive to the conduct of business.
      • 1867, Edmund Hodgson Yates (editor), Amiens, in Tinsley's Magazine, page 430,Amiens is a thoroughly business town, the business being chiefly with the flax-works.
      • 2013-06-08, Obama goes troll-hunting, According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures trolls roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
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