business end

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noun

the front part or end of a tool, weapon, etc., with which the work is done or from which a missile is ejected, as opposed to the handle or butt: the business end of a revolver; the business end of a screwdriver.

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Origin of business end

First recorded in 1875–80

Words nearby business end

business class, business college, business cycle, business double, business education, business end, business English, business envelope, business intelligence, businesslike, business machine

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use business end in a sentence

After promoting QAnon for more than a year, Flynn now finds himself on the business end of the conspiracy theory.
Michael Flynn to QAnon Believers: I’m Not a Satanist!|Will Sommer|October 8, 2021|The Daily Beast
Gilbert works the business end of the blowpipe as Cobb shapes their work into a disk called a rondelle.
How glassblowers turn silica, soda ash, and lime into stunning works of art|Rachel Feltman|September 23, 2021|Popular-Science
Given her previous work at Wirecutter, a New York Times-owned news company, it’s clear Mann is pioneering the business end of making traditional media profitable in the 21st century.
The Women Reshaping the C-Suite|Nick Fouriezos|January 24, 2021|Ozy
Yet this, in the end, is a book from which one emerges sad, gloomy, disenchanted, at least if we agree to take it seriously.
Houellebecq’s Incendiary Novel Imagines France With a Muslim President|Pierre Assouline|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST

In the end, the clarity that comes from moments of horror can help us recommit to deeper principles.
Why We Stand With Charlie Hebdo—And You Should Too|John Avlon|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
In the end, I find it never fails to modernize even the most dramatic things.
‘Empire’ Review: Hip-Hop Musical Chairs with an Insane Soap Opera Twist|Judnick Mayard|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Kennedy: "Mankind must put an end to war — or war will put an end to mankind."
Huckabee 2016: Bend Over and Take It Like a Prisoner!|Olivia Nuzzi|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
I was a little mystified at how benignly he responded to my questions about his business activities.
I Tried to Warn You About Sleazy Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2003|Vicky Ward|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
He remembered something—the cherished pose of being a man plunged fathoms-deep in business.
St. Martin's Summer|Rafael Sabatini
I presume the twenty-five or thirty miles at this end is unhealthy, even for natives, but it surely need not be so.
Glances at Europe|Horace Greeley
On to Gaba Tepe just in time to see the opening, the climax and the end of the dreaded Turkish counter attack.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton
He wanted to tell her that if she called her father, it would mean the end of everything for them, but he withheld this.
The Homesteader|Oscar Micheaux
Under the internal pressure his whiskers stood on end and his face grew red.
The Bondboy|George W. (George Washington) Ogden

British Dictionary definitions for business end

business end

noun

informal the part of a tool or weapon that does the work, as contrasted with the handle

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012