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Synonyms

busy as a beaver

Idioms  

  1. Also, busy as a bee. Hardworking, very industrious, as in With all her activities, Sue is always busy as a bee, or Bob's busy as a beaver trying to finish painting before it rains. The comparison to beavers dates from the late 1700s, the variant from the late 1300s. Also see eager beaver; work like a beaver.

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.

On the eve of this week's A. F. of L. convention at which he would report an increase of 500,000 members under NRA, President Green was busy as a beaver on the Washington battlements.

From Time Magazine Archive

Traders on the Rome Stock Exchange cocked pious ears one day last week to whispered tips that Pope Pius XII is busy as a beaver getting together a new European Four-Power Conference excluding Russia.

From Time Magazine Archive

He must have been busy as a beaver during his fleeting school days.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver

After all, even though I've been busy as a beaver, three weeks would hardly give me time to investigate every aspect of their culture....

From Once a Greech by Smith, Evelyn E.

From breakfast until noon he was busy as a beaver repairing the washout beneath the car and on to the top of the hill.

From The Trail of the White Mule by Bower, B. M.

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.