I. ˈbizē, -zi adjective
( -er/-est )
Etymology: Middle English bisy, from Old English bisig; akin to Middle Dutch & Middle Low German besich busy
1. : engaged in something requiring time or attention : not idle or at leisure : occupied , engaged
keeping the American front busy while Howe and his other divisions were moving — F.V.W.Mason
2. : full of business activity : active , bustling
a busy seaport
the snow and ice melted … and Mount Vernon was soon busy with its old hospitality — H.E.Scudder
3. : foolishly or intrudingly active : officious , meddling
a busy , fussy sort of man much concerned with regulating everything — A.M.Young
4. of a telephone line : being used
5. : full of distracting details — used especially of an artistic design
a busy floral wallpaper
small patterns can look annoyingly busy in a large room
Synonyms:
industrious , diligent , assiduous , sedulous : busy , the most general of these words, mainly stresses activity as opposed to idleness
always busy, making it a point never to suspend for one moment his occupation — John Burroughs
the merchants of Charleston and Portsmouth, Norfolk and Boston with their busy offices full of bustling clerks — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager
The word may connote purposive activity
this man of action wanted to get busy on the proposition without loss of time — Upton Sinclair
industrious may suggest habitual or continual earnest enterprise
a vigorous and industrious girl, who, single-handed, kept the farm in a sort of order — Dorothy Sayers
diligent may stress care, constancy, attentiveness, and thoroughness
when we came to start, the Yankee's boots were missing, and after a diligent search were not to be found — Herman Melville
the young investigator becomes a diligent student of literature and laboriously examines the relevant passages — Havelock Ellis
assiduous suggests constant, unremitting effort
he inherited the strict and severe piety of his father; he was assiduous in his attendance on religious services whether by night or day — J.R.Green
even the most assiduous critic can scarcely hope to keep abreast of the growing flood of translated books — Times Literary Supplement
sedulous connotes careful painstaking attentiveness
too prolonged and heated and discursive to interest any but the most sedulous reader — H.G.Wells
this man who, after weeks of sedulous and disheartening analysis, eventually ferreted out the source — W.H.Wright
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
Etymology: Middle English bisien, from Old English bisgian, from bisig, adjective
transitive verb
: to make busy
the faithful servant busied himself about the room — Winston Churchill
: engage , occupy
I have need to busy my heart with quietude — Rupert Brooke
intransitive verb
: to get or keep busy
I busied about and I made him two good-sized sandwiches — Edwin Corle