a tall fur hat with a baglike ornament hanging from the top over the right side.
the bearskin hat worn by certain British guardsmen.
a tall fur helmet with a bag hanging from the top to the right side, worn by certain soldiers, usually hussars, as in the British Army
(not in official usage) another name for bearskin
First recorded in 1755–65; originally, a bushy wig; of obscure origin
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A thunderstorm threatened, the morning was muggy-hot and to wear a busby was to be almost drowned in sweat, but His Majesty's duty was clear.
From Time Magazine Archive
Clapping on a great, hot bearskin busby, King Edward swung onto his chestnut charger, rode off to observe his birthday by a ceremonial trooping of the color followed by booming salutes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Passing the balcony of the Horse Guards Building where stood Mary, the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth, King George looked up from under his extinguisher of a busby and smiled.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the balcony at Buckingham Palace his perennial "shyness" was again observed; many Britons would have pledged their hearts blood that his uneasy fussing with the busby was genuine nervousness.
From Time Magazine Archive
And the same click in the brain told Adam that his father was not a great man, that he was, indeed, a very strong-willed and concentrated little man wearing a huge busby.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Busby began moonlighting in the honky tonks and was soon making more money with his mandolin than he could as a fed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Sounds like the lyrics of a Buzz Busby song.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
In the summer of 1954, the house band, Buzz Busby and the Bayou Boys, began to cause a stir, drawing a steady stream of patrons who came to listen to the music instead of brawl.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
Instead of odes to the old cabin home in the mountains or the little church in the wildwood, Busby sang about the loneliness and alienation of life in the nation’s capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
A column of shining black ants walked across a windowsill, their bottoms tilted upwards, like a line of mincing chorus girls in a Busby Berkeley musical.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
The scarlet of the massed bands of the Brigade of Guards and the bearskins of their busbies stood out boldly against this soft colour and hard white of the choir.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 27, 2012
Here was a final detachment of the Papal Army, elaborately upholstered Gendarmes in fur busbies, varnished jack boots, flashing sabres.
From Time Magazine Archive
Out the portal, down the steps of the basilica marched detachments of Papal gendarmes in towering busbies.
From Time Magazine Archive
As two Coldstream Guards in top-heavy busbies and flaming tunics paraded back & forth on sentry-go, the people talked among themselves in the hushed tones of relatives in a hospital anteroom.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was a roar from the ditches, and a shout from the gunners, and we saw a rolling grey cloud before us, with a score of busbies breaking through the shadow.
From The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
