busybody
Americannoun
plural
busybodiesnoun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of busybody
Explanation
A busybody is a nosy, meddling person, who's very interested in what other people say and do. If you're a busybody, you can't help offering advice to friends, whether they want it or not. Busybodies are known for trying to help with situations in which they're not necessarily welcome or needed. You could describe your mom as a busybody if she asks prying questions and tries to orchestrate your romantic life. The word busybody comes from a now-obsolete meaning of busy, "prying" or "meddlesome."
Vocabulary lists containing busybody
With the Fire on High
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The Book of Unknown Americans
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"Oedipus the King" by Sophocles
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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.
Sample playbills during one recent Peking opera week: People's Theater: Busybody Li, the story of an overeager woman on a commune.
From Time Magazine Archive
Busybody Pinkerton makes more trouble, has more excitement than usual, in a suburban poisoning case.
From Time Magazine Archive
There a certain Busybody in the crowd said to him: “Æsop, why with a light at mid-day?”
From The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes by Riley, Henry T. (Henry Thomas)
An Officious Busybody, perceiving a Phœnix well alight, promptly extinguished her by means of a convenient watering-pot.
From A Bayard From Bengal Being some account of the Magnificent and Spanking Career of Chunder Bindabun Bhosh,... by Jabberjee, Hurry Bungsho
I was vexed at this, and to counteract them, not being able to commence our paper, I wrote several amusing pieces for Bradford's paper, under the title of the Busybody, which Brientnal continued some months.
From Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin; Written by Himself. [Vol. 1 of 2] With His Most Interesting Essays, Letters, and Miscellaneous Writings; Familiar, Moral, Political, Economical, and Philosophical by Franklin, Benjamin
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.
