Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

get busy

Idioms  

  1. Start working, become active, as in Stop dawdling; get busy, or We'd better get busy on this paper. [c. 1900] Also see get a move on; get going; get on the stick.

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.

In Mansfield: “The Shawshank Redemption” was filmed at the Ohio State Reformatory, where Tim Robbins’s character tells the inmate played by Morgan Freeman: “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 16, 2026

That said, life can get busy, and sometimes I need to get dinner on the table quickly.

From Salon • Apr. 29, 2025

“This is the time to really do it. Do it before we start to get busy with all the stuff that comes with the holidays, with the kids going back to school.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 9, 2024

Roads into the capital are starting to get busy and a main road in Cardiff Bay is to shut so protesters can park ahead of the Senedd demonstration.

From BBC • Feb. 28, 2024

Before Mom and I can finish talking, Mrs. Hameed arrives and the two of them get busy studying.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

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.