| 释义 |
business|ˈbɪznɪs|
Forms: 1 North. bisiᵹnis, 3 bisenes, 3–4 bisines, 4 bisy-, bysi-, bissynes, bissinesse, 4–5 besines(se, besenes, bisy-, bysynesse, 4–6 besynes(se, bysy-, busynes, 4–7 busynesse, 5 besiness, bessynes, byse-, bisinesse, 6 besyness, busenes(s, buysines, 6–7 busines, -nesse, (7 bius'ness, busynese), 7– business.
[OE. (North.) bisiᵹnis, f. busy a., or stem of busy v.; see -ness. Shortened to a dissyllable, since it ceased to be a noun of state. The plural businesses (formerly also business) is used only in a few senses, chiefly 14, 15.]
I. State or quality of being busy. (Cf. the adj.)
(These senses are all obs., but some of them occur as nonce-words with special spelling busyness, and trisyllabic pronunciation.)
†1.
a. The state of being busily engaged in anything.
b. Industry, diligence. Obs.
c1350Cursor M. 28748 (Cott. Galba MS.) Fasting and gude bisines Gers a man fle lustes of fless. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 60 Cristis bysynesse in prechynge. c1440Promp. Parv. 37 Bysynesse, assiduitas, diligencia. 1549Compl. Scot. 2 Distitute of..al verteus bysynes of body ande saul. 1611Bible Rom. xii. 11 Not slouthfull in busines [1881 Rev. Vers. in diligence not slothful]. 1696Stillingfl. 12 Serm. viii. 349 Apprehensive..not so much from the business of our enemies. a1713in Guardian No. 35 §12 Behold the raptures which a writer knows..Behold his business while he works the mine.
†2. Activity, briskness. Obs.
1423Jas. I. King's Q. clv, The lytill squerell, full of besynesse. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 681 The businesse of his [a dog's] taile. 1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 11 The bulkiness of the world, the business of motion.
†3. Mischievous or impertinent activity, officiousness. Obs.
1466Paston Lett. No. 543 II. 263 Al by her awne bessynes of her tunge. 1528More Dial. Heresyes iii. Wks. 212/1 Faccious wayes full of busynes. 1580Sidney Arcadia 315 O noble sisters..now you be gone what is left in that sex, but babling and businesse?
†4. Eagerness, earnestness, importunity. Obs.
a1300Cato Major ii. xvii, Envye wiþ gret bisinesse Beo⁓þenk þe forte fleo. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. Introd., Males secheþ females with besinesse. c1400Lay-Folks Mass-Bk. App. iii. 122 Þorouȝ besynesse of preyers. 1543Prymer ibid. 86 Make me accordyng to my busynes Partaker of thy..glory endles.
†5. Anxiety, solicitude, care; distress, uneasiness. (The earliest cited sense.) Obs.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt., Table Contents xx, Ne bisiᵹ⁓nisse mettes & woedes hæbende [Lat. nec solicitudinem escæ et vestis habendam]. a1300Cursor M. 14105 ‘Martha, Martha’..‘In mikel bisenes ert þou’. 1382Wyclif Ezek. xii. 19 Thei shulen eete her breed in bisynes [solicitudine]. 1475Bk. Noblesse 3 Put away thoughte and gret pensifnes..and besinesse. 1526Tindale Gal. v. 17 From hence forth, let no man put me to busynes [so in Coverdale, Cranmer, Geneva]. 1577St. Augustine's Man. (ed. Longman) 90 Leave of thine own businesses..and withdrawe thy selfe from thy troublesome thoughtes.
†6. Care, attention, observance. Obs.
1382Wyclif Ecclus. xli. 15 Haue thou bisynesse [curam habe] of a good name. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxvi. (1495) 148 The herte hyghte cor..of cura besynesse, for therin is all besynesse and cause of witte and of knowinge. 1503–4Act 19 Hen. VII, xxxii. §5 Takyng uppon theym the charge and besynes for the assessyng of the seid somme. 1540R. Hyrde Vives Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) CC ij, All these busines, & keeping of the corce.
†7.
a. Trouble, difficulty; ado. Cf. busy a. 3. Obs.
c1374Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 102 Ful mychell besynesse had he or þat he myght his lady wynne. 1387Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. III. 449 [He] aleyde þis sorwe unneþe wiþ grete besynesse. 1528Tindale Obedience Chr. Man Wks. I. 310 What business had he to pacify his children. a1599R. Bodenham in Arb. Garner I. 34, I had no small business to cause my mariners to venture. 1693Locke Educ. §157 His learning to read should be made as little Trouble or Business to him as might be.
†b. Ado, disturbance, commotion. Obs.
1494Fabyan vii. 684 For whose goodes was besynesse by⁓twen the Kynges amner and the sheryffe. 1514Ld. Mountjoy in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. i. 9 He feared that if they had not their pardons in likewise, they would either make business or they would avoid. 1526Tindale Matt. xxvii. 24 When Pilate sawe..that moare busenes [1611 a tumult] was made. 1560J. Daus Sleidane's Comm. 343 a, One of the Sergeaunts..made a busines with him as though he would haue caried him to pryson. 1570–87Holinshed Sc. Chron. (1806) 110 Argadus sent foorth..with a power to appease that businesse.
†8. Diligent labour, exertion, pains. Phrases. to do (one's) business, give business: to take pains, do one's endeavour (L. dare operam).
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 1068 Wald þai do half swilk bysines About goddes of heven. c1380Wyclif Wks. (1880) 373 He wol þat þai ȝeue bissynes to þe londe. c1400Mandeville xxiii. 251 Thei..alle weys don here besynes, to destroyen hire enemyes. 1422E.E. Wills (1882) 51 They will do her besynesse to fulfyll goddes will. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xiv. xiv, In vayne they spende their besynes.
† II. 9. A company of flies, also of ferrets. Obs.
c1470Hors, Shepe, & G. (1822) 31 A besynes of flyes. 1486Bk. St. Albans f vi a, A Besynes of ferettis.
III. That about which one is busy.
†10. The object of anxiety or serious effort; a serious purpose or aim. Obs.
c1392Chaucer Compl. Venus 20 Me to serue is al his besynesse. 1413Lydg. Pylgr. Sowle iii. iii. (1483) 51 Alle youre study and besinesse hath ben to defame tho that were better than ye. c1530Prov. Howsolde-kepyng in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866) 29 Peyse wisely the besynes & the purpose of them wich ammynyster thy goodes.
11. a. A task appointed or undertaken; a person's official duty, part or province; function, occupation. Phr. to make it one's business: to undertake as a self-appointed task (to do something).
c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 1719 Bad hire seruauntis don hire besynesse. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lviii. 199 It behoueth vs shortely to determyne oure besynes..I shall shew you what is best for vs ii to do. 1611Bible Gen. xxxix. 11 Ioseph went in to the house, to doe his busines. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. i. x. 25 Though going abroad sometimes about her businesse, She never makes it her businesse to go abroad. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 95 Love's Business is to love, and to enjoy. 1709Steele Tatler No. 18 ⁋1 Because a Thing is every Body's Business, it is no Body's Business. 1723G. P[arry] tr. Cicero's De Orat. ii. 134 When, as you said, I had first made it my Business not to examine but to aggravate. 1735Berkeley Defence Free-Thinking in Maths. 54 And since the publication thereof, I have myself freely conversed with Mathematicians of all ranks, and some of the ablest Professors, as well as made it my business to be informed of the Opinions of others. 1802M. Edgeworth Mor. T. (1816) I. xvii. 141 It is our business to keep the room aired and swept. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 183 The great business of the sea is..eating away the margin of the coast. 1946‘P. Wentworth’ Clock strikes Twelve ix. 43 ‘I don't know how she knew.’ ‘She's the sort of woman who makes it her business to know.’
b. That on which one is engaged, or with which one is concerned, at the time; often spec. the errand on which one comes.
1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 193 If you knew my businesse, You would intreat me rather goe then stay. 1684Bunyan Pilgr. ii. 72 What is your business here so late to Night? 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 644 What Buis'ness brought thee to my dark abode? 1740J. Clarke Educ. Youth (ed. 3) 15 His Business will have no Difficulty in it. Mod. I asked him his business. What business brings you here?
12. a. A person's official or professional duties as a whole; stated occupation, profession, or trade.
1477Earl Rivers Dictes (Caxton) 106 He that wele & dyligently vnderstondith to his bysenesse. 1549Latimer Serm. on the Ploughers (Arb.) 29 Lette euerie man do his owne busines, and folow his callyng. 1694R. L'Estrange Fables ccclxv. (ed. 6) 385 They make Fooling their Business and their Livelihood. 1732Law Serious C. ii. (ed. 2) 19 His every day business, will be a course of wise and reasonable actions. 1745Chesterfield Lett. I. c. 278 To apply yourself seriously to your business. 1882Beecher in Homiletic Monthly (N.Y.) Apr. 381 One whose business it is to preach.
†b. Official or public engagements generally, active life. Obs. See also man of business: 22 a.
1750Chesterfield Lett. III. ccxxiv. 15 Your German..will be of great use to you when you come into business. 1779Johnson Pope Wks. IV. 6 Sir William Trumbal, who had been..secretary of state, when he retired from business, fixed his residence in the neighbourhood of Binfield.
c. Phr. business as usual: things proceeding normally in spite of disturbing circumstances.
1884Punch 12 Apr. 178/2 The true way she could show respect to Her Majesty was by letting her shopmen carry on ‘business as usual’ for the benefit of Her Majesty's subjects. 1914Wilson & Hammerton Great War I. 84 ‘Business as usual’ was the motto of London. 1944J. S. Huxley On Living in Rev. iii. 38 The subordination of the profit motive and all ideas of ‘business as usual’ to the non-economic motive of success in war. 1969Times 25 Nov. 21/7 We can never expect it to be a case of, after the squeeze, business as usual.
13. a. In general sense: action which occupies time, demands attention and labour; esp. serious occupation, work, as opposed to pleasure or recreation.
c1400Apol. Loll. 3 Hatyng to be enpliȝed wiþ seculer bisines. 1532More Confut. Tindale Wks. 826/1 Occupied in honorable businesse. 1600C. Percy in Shaks. C. Praise 38 Pestred with contrie businesse. 1653Walton Angler Ep. Ded. 3 To give rest to your mind, and devest your self of your more serious business. 1796Southey Occas. Pieces v, The business of the day is done. 1857Heavysege Saul (1869) 141 Business still should alternate with pleasure.
†b. Work done by beasts. Obs. rare.
1737H. Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) II. v. 104 A Horse which eats only a moderate Quantity of Food, will do as much Business..[as] one that eats continually.
c. Phrases. to mean business: to be in earnest (colloq.). on business: with an errand or purpose relating to business.
1857Hughes Tom Brown i. ix, I tells 'ee I means business, and you'd better keep on your own side. Mod. No admittance except on business.
d. a person's business: work to be done or matters to be attended to in his service or on his behalf. to do (a person's) business: to ‘do for’, ruin, or kill him. Also fig.
1535Coverdale 2 Macc. xv. 5 To perfourme the kynges busynesse. 1611Bible Luke ii. 49 Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? 1667Pepys Diary 16 Nov., Lord Vaughan, that is so great against the Chancellor..was heard to swear he would do my Lord Clarendon's business. 1694Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 349 They would now doe the queens businesse, if she were not immortall. 1773Goldsmith Stoops to Conq. v, Oh, Tony, I'm killed!..That last jolt, that laid us against the quickset hedge, has done my business. 1816Jane Austen Emma I. viii. 122 Her visit to Abbey Mill..seems to have done his business. He is desperately in love. 1883J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places 7 It was the bricks and mortar that did his business, poor chap. 1891J. M. Dixon Dict. Idiom. Eng. Phr. 47 His last imprudent exposure of himself to the night air did the business for him.
14. a. (With pl.) A pursuit or occupation demanding time and attention; a serious employment as distinguished from a pastime.
c1400Apol. Loll. 77 Now al most is no worldly bysines þat ministres of þe auter are not inplied in. 1458MS. of Christ's Hosp. Abingdon in Dom. Archit. III. 41 Another blissed besines is brigges to make. 1535Coverdale 2 Tim. ii. 4 No man that warreth tangleth him selfe with worldly busynesses. 1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. v. (1841) I. 33 Trade ought to be followed as one of the great businesses of life. 1853A. J. Morris Relig. & Business, Title-page, Wherever religion is a business, there will business be a religion. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 54
b. spec. A particular occupation; a trade or profession.
1827Carlyle Transl. (1874) 217, I wished to be a fisherman, and tried that business for a time. 1852McCulloch Taxation i. ii. (ed. 2) 74 Taxes on the profits of particular businesses. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 51 Not allowing any man to work at a business for which he was unfit. 1878Jevons Primer Pol. Econ. 58 A good butcher makes high wages, because his business is a greasy one, besides being thought to be cruel. Mod. Which of these businesses is to be preferred?
15. a. A particular matter demanding attention; a piece of work, a job. (The plur. is now unusual.)
1557North Gueuara's Diall Pr. (1582) 424 b, The continuall buysines they haue do vex them. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iii. i. 395 We may effect this businesse, yet ere day. 1595― John iv. iii. 158 A thousand businesses are briefe in hand. 1611Bible Pref. 11 In a businesse of moment a man feareth not the blame of conuenient slacknesse. 1647W. Browne Polex. i. 66 During all these great businesse. 1718Pope Iliad xix. 152 What I act, survey, And learn from thence the business of the day. 1851Carlyle Sterling ii. vi. (1872) 139 On these businesses..he was often running up to London. 1881Daily Tel. 27 Dec., Attention was paid to the business of the evening.
b. Elliptically for: A difficult matter (colloq.).
1843Carlyle Past & Pr. ii. xii. (1872) 90 If he had known what a business it was to govern the Abbey.
c. to do one's business: ‘to ease oneself’.
1645Sacr. Decretal 3 Have a..care..that..no birds build, chatter, or do their businesse, or sing there.
d. letters of business: a royal letter authorizing Convocation to transact business.
[1839Cardwell Doc. Ann. Ch. Eng. II. 359 No business can be undertaken in convocation, unless it has been specially proposed to them by royal license. 1842Lathbury Hist. Convocation 350 Parliament was summoned in February, 1713: and the convocation met on the 16th... On the 17th, the convocation was authorized, by a royal letter, to proceed to business.] 1873Phillimore Eccles. Law 1934 In 1713, convocation had royal letters of business, and considered various subjects,—penance, excommunication, forms for the visitation of prisoners. 1906Convocations Cant. & York in Parl. Papers LXXXIV. 805 You may see your way to advise His Majesty the King to direct that Letters of Business be issued.
16. a. A matter that concerns or relates to a particular person or thing; const. of, or genitive case.
1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. xxi. 43 It is longe now sith I made any mencion of the busynesses of farre countreis. 1526Tindale Phil. 12, That my busynes [τὰ κατ' ἐµὲ] is happened unto the gretter furtherynge off the gospell. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 32 Virtue is the business of the legislator.
b. Concern, the fact of being concerned with.
1759Johnson Rasselas xxix. (1787) 85 My business is with man. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. (1871) II. i. i. 4 Madame, your business is with the children.
c. colloq. A matter with which one has the right to meddle. Also, justifying motive or right of action or interference, ‘anything to do’ (with). Almost always with negative expressed or implied. Const. usually with, or infinitive.
c1690R. L'Estrange (J.), What business has a tortoise among the clouds? 1761Sheridan Mem. Miss Sidney Bidulph II. 308 She has no business to go into her own lonely house again; it would be enough to kill her. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps iv. §13. 105 Such kind of architecture has no business with rich ornament. a1859Kingsley Misc. II. 311 That is no business of ours. 1878H. Smart Play or Pay ix. (ed. 3) 177 A Captain of Dragoons has no business with a wife; but then we're always doing what we've no business to do.
d. to mind one's own business: to attend to one's own affairs, to refrain from meddling with what does not concern one. Now colloq.
1625Bacon, Envy, Ess. (Arb.) 512 Neither can he, that mindeth but his own Businesse, finde much matter for Envy. 1711Addison Spect. No. 16 ⁋7, I..have nothing to do but to mind my own Business. 1749Fielding Tom Jones (1836) I. i. ii. 27, I must desire all those critics to mind their own business. 1882Besant All Sorts 40 ‘Mind your own business,’ growled his uncle.
e. to go about one's business: to go and attend to one's own affairs, to go away; in imp. used as a formula of impatient dismissal. So to send about one's business: to dismiss unceremoniously, to ‘send packing’.
1687Magd. Coll. & Jas. II (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) 210 He was a pert..man..and..might go about his business. 1702Lond. Gaz. No. 3801/6 They advised him to go about his business. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull 70 Shall I leave all this matter to thy management..and go about my business? 1749Fielding Tom Jones xvi. v. (1840) 236/2 Go about your business, I hate the sight of you. 1768Blackstone Comm. III. 423 The basha..sends them about their business. 1878Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 62 He would..be told to go about his business.
f. like nobody's business, beyond the normal range (of a person's capacity); in no ordinary way; ‘like anything’. Hence also nobody's business, an extraordinary affair. colloq.
1931E. Linklater Juan in America 242 ‘How I love you is just nobody's business,’ she said. 1938Wodehouse Code of Woosters vii. 163 The fount of memory spouting like nobody's business. 1941‘N. Blake’ Abominable Snowman xii. 132 Plays the piano like nobody's business. 1957H. Croome Forgotten Place vii. 92 My head this morning is nobody's business.
†17. A subject or topic of consideration or discussion; the subject of a book, etc. Obs. (common in 17th c.)
1622Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 128 This Sunday..the Epistle and Gospel treat about the same businesse, the birth of Christ. 1640–4in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 42 When a Business was begun and in debate. 1652Proc. Parliament No. 133. 2073 Resolved..That..the House doe only take into consideration publique businesses, and no private businesses. 1660Stanley Hist. Philos. (1701) 379/1 The Pythagoreans..were studiously addicted to the business of Numbers. 1699Bentley Phal. 480 The very Matter and Business of the Letters sufficiently discovers them to be an Imposture.
18. a. vaguely, An affair, concern, matter. (Now usually indicating some degree of contempt or impatience, esp. when preceded by a n. in attrib. relation.) Frequent in colloquial phrases like ‘a bad business’, ‘a queer business’.
1605Shakes. Macb. ii. i. 24 We would spend [an houre] in some words vpon that Businesse. 1658–9Knightley in Burton Diary (1828) IV. 75 Their officer expostulated the business with me. 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics xxvii. 433 It is a poor business for a man to be secure that has nothing to lose. 1706Lond. Gaz. No. 4012/1 A Business has lately happened which may..engage us in new Disputes. 1805Med. Jrnl. XIV. 354 The vaccinator should..see his patient at least four times during the progress of the business. 1813Southey Nelson II. 177 This boat business..might be part of a great plan of invasion. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola i. iii. (1880) I. 40. 1868 H. Kingsley Silcote of S. III. v. 73, I am getting so sick of the whole business.
†b. Affectedly used for an ‘affair of honour’, a duel. Obs.
a1637B. Jonson Masque of Merc. Wks. V. 431 (N.) For that's the word of tincture, the business. Let me alone with the business. I will carry the business. I do understand the business. I do find an affront in the business.
c. colloq. Used with intentional indefiniteness of material objects. (Cf. affair, concern.)
1654Evelyn Diary (Chandos) 228 Sir Thos. Fowler's aviarie..is a poor businesse. 1697tr. C'tess D' Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 231 Some Pastry business, which burns the Mouth, it is so excessively peppered. 1847L. Hunt Men, Wom. & Bks. I. i. 10 A business of screws and iron wheels.
19. a. Dealings, intercourse (with). arch.
1611Bible Judges xviii. 7 They..had no businesse with any man. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iv. vi. (1872) 245 What a shallow delusion is this..That any man..can keep himself apart from men, have ‘no business’ with them, except a cash-account ‘business’.
†b. Euphemism for ‘sexual intercourse’. Obs.
1630Taylor (N.), Lais of Corinth, ask'd Demosthenes One hundred crownes for one nights businesse. 1654Wits Recreations (N.), He does no business of thy wives, not he, He does thy business (Coracine) for thee.
20. Theatr. Action as distinguished from dialogue. (Formerly used more widely.) Also in phr. business of the stage.
1671Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Rehearsal iii. ii. (Arb.) 83, ‘I see here is a great deal of Plot, Mr. Bayes.’ Bayes. ‘Yes, now it begins to break; but we shall have a world of more business anon.’ 1763Garrick Let. 10 Aug. (1831) I. 163 If you mean by the warmth of temper you have accused me of to Mr. Johnson, a certain anxiety for the business of the stage, your accusation was well founded. 1779Sheridan Critic ii. ii, The carpenters say, that unless there is some business put in here..they shan't have time to clear away the fort. 1833Lamb Elia (1860) 264 He carried the same rigid exclusiveness of attention to the stage business. 1849Theatrical Programme 4 June 13/1 Mr. Hurlstone is not sufficiently alive to the business of the stage to make a figure among professionals. 1860Cornh. Mag. II. 749 They give the literary composition the almost contemptuous title of ‘words’, while they dignify the movements of the actors with the name of ‘business’. 1893I. Zangwill Children of Ghetto (ed. 3) xiii. 123 An actor who knows all the ‘business’ elaborated by his predecessors. 1923Wodehouse Adv. Sally vi. 78 ‘Bit o' business,’ she announced, at length. ‘What do you mean, a bit of business?’ ‘Character stuff,’ explained Miss Winch... ‘Thought it out myself. Maids chew gum, you know.’ 1949[see bus n.3].
21. a. spec. (from 13 and 19): Trade, commercial transactions or engagements.
1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. iv. (1841) I. 30 The merchants' exchange, where they manage, negotiate, and frequently indeed beget business with one another. Ibid. If they do not get money, they gain knowledge in business. 1823Lamb Elia (1860) 3 To open a book of business, or bill of lading. 1862Burton Bk-hunter I. 84 [People] who wanted to do a stroke of business with some old volume. 1884Times (weekly ed.) 12 Sept. 7/3 They are evidently doing a very brisk business.
fig.1847De Quincey Secret Soc. Wks. VI. 256 It has done business as a swindle through thirty generations. Ibid. 258 The goddess and her establishment of hoaxers at Eleusis did a vast ‘stroke of business’ for more than six centuries.
b. place of business: usually in spec. sense, a shop, office, warehouse, commercial establishment; so also house of business. hours of business, business hours: the hours in the day during which commercial or other business is transacted.
c. The audience or attendance at a theatre; a ‘house’. Also, the total of box-office receipts.
1755Mrs. C. Charke Life 130 Business continuing very shocking. 1811C. Mathews Let. 5 Dec. in Mrs. Mathews Mem. C.M. (1838) II. viii. 173 They may promise a salary, and I am sure they would pay it; but can they promise business? 1837in W. R. Alger Life E. Forrest (1877) I. 324 Will conclude with her benefit on Friday evening when she will probably have between $900 and $1,000... This is considered a very handsome business. 1895N.Y. Dramatic News 12 Oct. 5/2 Hanlon brothers' Superba has played to ‘banner’ business.
d. Bridge. Calling for the purpose of gaining a penalty. Freq. attrib.
1925A. E. M. Foster Auction Bridge 46 The two players with the better cards are going to get the contract, or they are going to force the others into a bid when a real ‘business’ double for penalties can be made... A double of four or more is always a ‘business’ double. Ibid. 51 The Business Redouble is seldom sound business. 1927Observer 6 Mar. 25 This Business Pass is one of the most formidable weapons. It converts the Informatory Double into a Business Double. 1959Listener 23 July 154/3 It is standard practice to regard a double as primarily for business.
22. man of business.
†a. One engaged in public affairs (obs.).
b. One engaged in mercantile transactions.
c. A man of business-like habits, one skilled in business.
d. The professional agent who transacts a person's legal business, an attorney.
1670Burnet Let. to Brisbane, I am..resolved never to have anything to do more with men of business, particularly with any in opposition to the Court. 1712Steele Spect. No. 466 ⁋3, I am a Man of Business, and obliged to be much abroad. 1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. iv. (1841) I. 30 Men of business are companions for men of business. 1752Hume Ess. & Treat. (1777) I. 113 note, Pericles, a man of business, & a man of sense. 1787‘Gambado’ (H. Bunbury) Acad. Horsem. (1809) 30 By a man of business is not meant a Lord of the Treasury, or a Commissioner of Accounts, but what is called on the road, a rider, a bag-man, or bagster. 1857Buckle Civilis. I. xi. 629 If we were all men of business our mental pleasures would be abridged. 1861Ramsay Remin. vi. (ed. 18) 232 In Scotland it is usual to term the law-agent or man of business of any party his ‘doer’.
23. A commercial enterprise regarded as a ‘going concern’; a commercial establishment with all its ‘trade’, liabilities, etc.
a1888Mod. (Heading of Advt. column) Businesses, etc., to be disposed of.
24. attrib. and in Comb., as business agent, business centre, business college, business committee, business efficiency, business girl, business habits, business hours, business house, business letter, business life, business proposition, business school, business suit, business transaction, business woman, etc.; also, business card, a card of a tradesman, manufacturer, commercial traveller, etc., with his address and various particulars as to the nature of his business, used for advertising purposes; business doctor (see quot. 1909); business edge, cf. business end; business end (used humorously, see quot.); colloq., the operative part; business-looking a., having an appearance suggestive of business; business lunch(eon), a luncheon at which commercial transactions are discussed; business man = man of business; see 22 b, c; business manager, a manager of the business or commercial side of an enterprise; hence business-manage vb. trans.; business part, the sphere of business (also concr. = business end).
1849C. Lanman Alleghany Mts. xi. 85 The ‘guide, counsellor, and friend’ of the Indians, as well as their *business agent. 1901Merwin & Webster Calumet ‘K’ i. 15 All that remained was to wait until the business agent made the next move.
1840Boston (Mass.) Almanac 119 *Business cards printed in the most expeditious manner. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. I. 317 (Hoppe) Bland strangers with business-cards meeting the servants in the streets. 1959T. S. Eliot Elder Statesman iii. 102 Here's my business card With the full address.
1851C. Cist Cincinnati 278 *Business centre. 1888J. Kirkland McVeys 4 In the ‘business centre’ one might see an occasional tall, narrow, straight-sided brick structure.
1865Indianapolis Daily Jrnl. 14 Sept. 2/4 Students in Bryant's *Business College. 1903A. D. McFaul Ike Glidden xvi. 124 He had just graduated from a business college, and claimed to know how to do business ‘in a business like manner’.
1838W. L. Garrison in Garrison & Jackson Life (1885) II. 227 A *business committee was then appointed.
1901Daily Express 6 Aug. 6/2 A very novel profession has been lately started in the City. It may be called that of the *business doctor. 1909Modern Business Jan. 606/1 In America..there exists a body of men who are known as ‘Business Doctors’, men who are called in to give advice upon the proper conduct of business.
1935Antiquity IX. 211 The *business edge of the chisel-ended arrow.
1926A. Huxley Jesting Pilate iv. 316 Reduced to an Indian diet, Americans would be a good deal less interested than they actually are in *business efficiency, uplift and the Charleston. 1953D. Parry Going Up iv. 154, I was supposed to be a business-efficiency expert, one of those menaces who crawl round doing time-and-motion studies.
1878Holbrook Hyg. Brain 56 The *business end of a carpet-tack. 1936‘R. Crompton’ Sweet William ix. 227 The business end of a geometrical compass was jabbed into Douglas's arm. 1955Sci. Amer. Sept. 197/1 The business end of the coronagraph is the quartz polarizing monochromator. 1962Sunday Express 25 Feb. 16/2 The business end of a rifle barrel.
1888C. M. Yonge Beechcroft at Rockstone I. ix. 167, I..mixed her up with the ordinary class of *business girls. 1958Betjeman Coll. Poems 215 (title) Business girls.
1839Dickens Nich. Nick. xl. 390 You will be surprised..to witness this, in *business hours. 1881Daily Tel. 31 Jan., What are they to do after business hours?
1766J. Rose Let. 8 Apr. in A. & H. Tayler Lord Fife (1925) ii. 31, I will have *business letters also to write. 1914W. Owen Let. 6 Mar. (1967) 237, I make money for this by doing a few translations..of business letters. 1941T. S. Eliot Dry Salvages iii. 12 The passengers are settled To fruit, periodicals and business letters.
1868W. Collins Moonstone II. v. 148 Female Boards..drew the breath of their *business-life through the nostrils of Mr. Godfrey. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 137/2 People..could maintain an intimate link with ordinary social and business life.
1839Dickens Nich. Nick. ii, A business-looking table, and several *business-looking people.
1926S. Lewis Mantrap xxv. 289, I don't really know a soul..except for meeting them at *business lunches. 1954L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel xii. 76 The foregone Conclusion of a business lunch. 1963P. Moyes Murder à la Mode v. 83 He knew enough of the protocol of business luncheons..not to be surprised..that Goring studiously avoided all reference to the matter in hand until the coffee arrived.
1826H. C. Robinson Diary 9 June (1967) 91 Watts is a *business man and is editor and publisher on his own account. 1832Congress. Globe 30 Jan. 1511 Having been in the practice of the law..and somewhat conversant with business men. 1843Dickens Christmas Carol iv. 124 One little group of business men. 1860O. W. Holmes Prof. Breakf.-t. i. 16 People of cultivation, of pure character, shrewd business⁓men, men of science [etc.]. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 109 The mass of business men.
1901R. Loraine in W. Loraine R.L. (1938) i. iv. 79 Mr. Frohman would finance the enterprise and *business manage it entirely.
1852Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. XVII. 306/2 Clerks, book-keepers, foremen, *business-managers. 1906B. Stoker Pers. Remin. H. Irving II. lxxiii. §3. 319, I was Sir Henry Irving's business manager.
1838J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. Apr.–Aug. XXIX. 490 He [sc. Bentham] committed the mistake of supposing that the *business part of human affairs was the whole of them. 1910T. E. Lawrence Let. 29 Aug. (1938) 86 The business part of the log with which you are going to block your staircase.
1901S. E. White Claim Jumpers v. 70, I have a plain *business proposition to make. You and I are going to be great friends. 1909‘O. Henry’ Options (1916) 11 He had been used to having his business propositions heard of.
1916Nat. Educ. Assoc. U.S. Addresses & Proc. 1915 325 (heading) The service of *business schools at the close of the Great War. 1966‘N. Blake’ Morning after Death i. 19 ‘What do you actually do in the Business School?’ ‘There are courses in economics, management, salesmanship, commercial history, theory of exchange, the ethical aspect of business—all that kind of thing.’
1840Carlyle Heroes i. 36 Snorro..almost in a brief *business style, writes down, etc.
1870Harper's Bazaar 5 Nov. 707 *Business suits. 1882Advt. in W. Burnot's Mother Goose (Elephant & Castle Theatre) 30 Business Suits—21s. 1932E. Wilson Devil take Hindmost iv. 30 A prosaic, gray business suit.
1871W. Markby Elem. Law (1874) §472 Nearly all *business transactions have reference..to the ownership of property.
1862Burton Bk-hunter i. 38 Persons who might take a purely *business view of such transactions.
1850Clough Dipsychus ii. i. 49 Men's *business-wits the only sane things.
1844Southern Lit. Messenger X. 486 Reputation of being a ‘*business woman’. 1958Betjeman Coll. Poems 215 A thousand business women Having baths in Camden Town.
Add:[III.] [11.] c. In colloq. phr. to be in the business of, to be engaged or involved in, concerned with. Usu. in negative contexts.
1977Times 10 Aug. 16/3 Mr William Davis, editor of Punch, told the hearing that..a humorous magazine was not in the business of being respectable. 1981Observer 1 Mar. 13/6 Journalists are dealing with a more fragile commodity than ordinary manufacturers; and they are in the business, after all, of making a fuss. 1982Times Lit. Suppl. 5 Feb. 146/2 Goldziher, as a scholar, was not in the business of either defending or attacking Islam.
[13.] e. any other business, matters not listed specifically on the agenda of a meeting, but raised after the main business has been discussed; abbrev. A.O.B. s.v. *A III.
1935G. K. Bucknall Oldham's Guide to Company Secretarial Work (ed. 7) xix. 152 Agenda..1. Minutes of last meeting..4. Overdue accounts..9. Any other business. 10. Next meeting. 1953F. Shackleton Chairman's Guide ix. 74 The agenda for a general meeting other than the first would be as follows:..(7) Any other business. 1968Taylor & Mears Right Way to conduct Meetings (ed. 7) xiv. 94 No major matter should ever be put to the vote under ‘Any other Business’. 1976Harvard Business Rev. Mar.–Apr. 50/2 Listing ‘Any other business’ on the agenda is an invitation to waste time.
[24.] business studies n. pl. (freq. const. sing.), the analysis of the structure and conduct of business as an academic discipline.
[1914C. B. Thompson Scientific Management (series title) Harvard Business Studies.] 1962H. O. Beecheno Introd. Bus. Stud. p. vii, With the introduction of the Ordinary and Higher National Certificates and the Higher National Diploma in *Business Studies many students will be studying the subject of the Structure of the Business World. 1986Economist 18 Oct. 38/1 There are severe shortages of teachers of science, maths, technology, design and business studies.
▸ business person n.
1844Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit xxxviii. 443 The chairman of the Anglo-Bengalee Disinterested Loan and Life Insurance Board was dressing, and received him as a *business person who was often backwards and forwards. 1922W. A. Paton Accounting Theory xx. 474 The corporation is a real entity, endowed by the state with all the privileges of any business person. 2003Independent 27 Oct. i. 15/2 What about one of Britain's distinguished citizens, say a Nobel prizewinner, legal luminary, respected business person, or world-famous cultural figure?
▸ business angel n. a person who invests private capital in a small business, usually in return for a proportion of the company equity; cf. angel n. 8.
1933H. S. Johnson in N.Y. Times 14 Aug. 2/2 Men might argue about how many *business angels could stand on the point of an economic needle. 1984Inc. (Nexis) Mar. 143 Kramer finds most of his deals through friends and business associates. That, says a study by University of New Hampshire professor William E. Wetzel Jr., is precisely how most business angels operate. 1998Daily Tel. 3 Aug. 29/1 Business angels are vital to fill the gap when the bank refuses..further cash but the business is too small to interest venture capitalists.
▸ business casual adj. and n. orig. and chiefly N. Amer. (a) adj. designating clothing or a style of dress that is less formal than the traditional business dress code (esp. one in which men do not wear suits or ties), but is intended still to appear professional and businesslike; (of a workplace) having a relatively relaxed dress code; (b) n. this style of dress.
1968N.Y. Times 9 Nov. 3 (advt.) *Business casual or casual business suits... Suits that complement your business acumen and commend your savoir-faire. 1988Toronto Star (Nexis) 25 June k5 Friedlander's fashion philosophy revolves around ‘three styles of dressing’: High authority or power dressing... A day-to-day look she has labelled ‘business casual’... A day-to-evening concept. 1990St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 29 Jan. (Business section) 2 They were told the dress code was ‘business casual attire’. 1994Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (Electronic ed.) 2 Oct. We are finding more and more companies that started it on Friday in the summer, then went to Fridays all year long, and then to allowing business casual day in and day out. 2000N.Y. Times 6 Aug. 66/2 My colleagues in our business-casual office were amused that I wore a suit that day, but I was ashamed.
▸ business cycle n. = trade cycle n. at trade n. Compounds 2a.
1897N.Y. Times 28 Jan. 8/4 It is not intended to say that the science of *business cycles has reached a development which will enable the average man to close his eyes and act mechanically with sure prospect of winning in the marts of trade and speculation. 2002U.S. News & World Rep. 15 Apr. 30/2 Recessions are helpful that way: By completing business cycles, they are the ultimate stress tests for economic theories.
▸ business process redesign n. = business process re-engineering n. at Additions; abbreviated BPR.
1989Computerworld (Nexis) 20 Mar. 73 Leader in *business process redesign via information technology. 2000S. A. Shull & M. E. Sharpe Amer. Civil Rights Policy vi. 174 Management problems limited HUD's [= Department of Housing and Urban Development] effectiveness, and in 1995 it embarked on a business process redesign (BPR) to improve on its implementation efforts.
▸ business process re-engineering n. a system or programme for a thorough review and restructuring of a company's organization and methods, esp. so as to exploit the capabilities of information technology; abbreviated BPR.
1990Computerworld 24 Dec. 15 It should be *business process re-engineering so we can streamline our companies to reduce the organizational cost of service. 2001C. Coker Humane Warfare v. 100 And it is in Canada that there is an ever-increasing emphasis in the military on business process re-engineering supported by computerised information technology. |
