busy
Americanadjective
-
busier,
comparative
-
busiest
superlative
-
actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime.
busy with her work.
- Synonyms:
- hardworking, assiduous
- Antonyms:
- indolent
-
not at leisure; otherwise engaged.
He couldn't see any visitors because he was busy.
- Antonyms:
- unoccupied
-
full of or characterized by activity.
a busy life.
-
(of a telephone line) in use by a party or parties and not immediately accessible.
-
officious; meddlesome; prying.
-
ornate, disparate, or clashing in design or colors; cluttered with small, unharmonious details; fussy.
The rug is too busy for this room.
verb (used with object)
-
busies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
busied,
past participle, past
-
busying
present participle
adjective
-
actively or fully engaged; occupied
-
crowded with or characterized by activity
a busy day
-
(of a room, telephone line, etc) in use; engaged
-
overcrowded with detail
a busy painting
-
meddlesome; inquisitive; prying
verb
Synonym Usage
Busy, diligent, industrious imply active or earnest effort to accomplish something, or a habitual attitude of such earnestness. Busy means actively employed, temporarily or habitually: a busy official. Diligent suggests earnest and constant effort or application, and usually connotes fondness for, or enjoyment of, what one is doing: a diligent student. Industrious often implies a habitual characteristic of steady and zealous application, often with a definite goal: an industrious clerk working for promotion.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
busynessnoun
-
nonbusyadjective
-
overbusyadjective
-
superbusyadjective
-
unbusyadjective
-
well-busiedadjective
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
busysimple
-
busiessimple
-
have busiedperfect
-
has busiedperfect
-
am busyingprogressive
-
are busyingprogressive
-
is busyingprogressive
-
have been busyingperfect progressive
-
has been busyingperfect progressive
Past
-
busiedsimple
-
had busiedperfect
-
was busyingprogressive
-
were busyingprogressive
-
had been busyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of busy
First recorded before 950; Middle English busi, bisi, Old English bysig, bisig; cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch besich, Dutch bezig
Explanation
When you're busy, you have things to do. You're occupied and probably not bored. This word always means there's some kind of activity. When a phone line is busy, you can't get your call through. If you find the bathroom is busy, you'll have to wait it's free. When a supervisor is around, employees need to look busy. A busy intersection is loaded with traffic. If you're too busy playing basketball to finish your homework, your grades might suffer. It's good to be busy, but when people are too busy, they get stressed out.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The flight path travels through Saudi Arabian airspace, which is less busy than other parts of the region, and requires less interaction with air-traffic controllers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
“I am hoping I know how busy you are that you could give some time and attention to it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
On a later visit to the busy station, we found passengers waiting outside the main entrance or sheltering in underground passageways.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Martín Ramírez, who owns a car shop next to the warehouse, said when he initially arrived for work Tuesday morning, the warehouse was filled with busy workers as usual, cleaning and operating heavy machinery.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Mom was in the same boat, although she was too busy with me and being the commander of the entire Academy to mess around with recreational simulations.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
It ushered in a new kind of fun that was fresher, busier and airier than past listservs and chatrooms, the dank basements of internet interaction.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
This season, he intends to be busier than ever with football, basketball and he hopes a return to baseball, the sport he played since he was 4 until high school.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
He said it would be from Thursday onwards that hospitality businesses would see their premises become busier still, as the first part of the week was more competition focused.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
"At the weekend it gets busier, but otherwise..." one hotel manager said, trailing off.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Coal stumbled down the driveway toward a busier street, staying low behind a parked car until he reached the sidewalk.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Because airfare is highly sensitive to demand, the busiest travel days generally coincide with the highest prices, while less-crowded days can mean savings — or even a more appealing nonstop flight.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
They pay smugglers thousands of dollars to board unstable and often overcrowded rubber dinghies to make the hazardous illegal journey across one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
And the nation’s busiest port is the busiest it’s ever been.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
The addresses raided by the police included a tenement flat in Edinburgh's South Clerk Street, a five-minute walk from one of the capital's busiest police stations.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
He picked Tisch Hospital, part of New York University Medical Center, an academic center with relatively affluent patients, and passed up Bellevue, a city-run hospital with one of the busiest emergency rooms in New York.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
In addition to helping customers with their plant selections, Mejia rings them up at the register and then busies herself with tidying and organizing the shop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2025
She and care worker Michelle Rispin laugh and joke with each other, as Michelle busies herself checking Kath has the food and help she needs.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2023
Jack, meanwhile, busies his hands calling up images on his impressive machine.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2023
Charged with keeping America’s workplaces safe, it usually busies itself with tasks such as setting and enforcing standards for goggles, hardhats and ladders.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 16, 2021
Andre turns red as he sits back down and busies himself with a roll.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
An image published on social media by Iranian embassies abroad put Ghalibaf centre stage in the Iranian negotiating team, looking animated and gesturing with his hand, as Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi busied himself with teacups.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
“We were going to give them out during the strike,” she said as her staff busied for a flurry of meetings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2026
That is something Mr. Nguyen experienced personally when he busied himself pursuing publication in highly ranked journals instead of writing about what he truly loved: the philosophy of games.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
On turning 90, she continued to live quietly in Chichester, where she busied herself raising money for the cathedral roof.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025
The children found the cheetah statues amusing and busied themselves doing math problems with the spots.
From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood
Really though, you are only busying yourself and putting off the inevitable trek back home for a few more minutes.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2025
But with high-functioning depression, people are avoiding by busying themselves so they don’t have time to feel, and when they sit still, they feel restless and empty.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2025
Murdoch was also busying himself growing his operations in the US, where he gained a foothold in 1976 with US tabloid the New York Post.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2023
Rather than busying himself with them, he chipped a pretty long thing all the way over all their heads to someone he must have seen coming from yonder out of a corner of an eye.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 5, 2022
So he was busying himself with other things assuming I would have to come out eventually—and he missed his chance.
From "Z for Zachariah" by Robert C. O’Brien
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.
