business as usual

Idioms  

1. The normal course of some activity, as in The fire destroyed only a small section of the store, so it's business as usual. This term originated as an announcement that a commercial establishment was continuing to operate in spite of fire, construction, or some similar interruption. It had been extended to broader use by 1914, when Winston Churchill said in a speech: “The maxim of the British people is ‘Business as usual,’” which became a slogan for the rest of World War I. Today it may be used in this positive sense and also pejoratively, as in Never mind that most civilians are starving to death—the ministry regards its job to be business as usual. [Late 1800s]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

business as usual

In the meantime, it’s business as usual for the Angels.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

MANCHESTER, England—From the stands of the Etihad Stadium, the opening game of the Premier League seemed to be business as usual.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Ian Jopson, director of sustainability at NATS, said it should be "pretty much business as usual using existing procedures for the operators on the North Atlantic".

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Global warming is also expected to upend decades of business as usual in the tourism and property sectors.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

My dad glanced at my mom and for one delirious second I thought I was off the hook, that somehow I’d exonerated myself, and that we could all just go back to business as usual.

From "The Book of Unknown Americans" by Cristina Henríquez