meaning of business

business

ˈbɪznəs/

noun

noun: business; plural noun: the business

1. 1.

   a person's regular occupation, profession, or trade.

   "experts who typically conduct their business over the Internet"

   synonyms:

   work, line of work, line, occupation, profession, career, employment,job, day job, position, pursuit, vocation, calling, field, sphere, walk of life, trade, craft; More

   • an activity that someone is engaged in.

     "what is your business here?"
   • a person's concern.

     "this is none of your business"

     synonyms:

     concern, affair, responsibility, province, preserve, duty, function,task, assignment, obligation, problem, worry, lookout; More

   • work that has to be done or matters that have to be attended to.

     "government business"
2. 2.

   commercial activity.

   "firms who want to do business with Japan"

   synonyms:

   trade, trading, commerce, buying and selling, dealing, traffic,trafficking, marketing, merchandising, bargaining; More

   • trade considered in terms of its volume or profitability.

     "how's business?"
   • a commercial house or firm.

     plural noun: businesses

     "a catering business"

     synonyms:

     firm, company, concern, enterprise, venture, organization, operation,undertaking, industry, corporation, establishment, house, shop,office, bureau, agency, franchise, practice, partnership, consortium,cooperative, conglomerate, group, combine, syndicate; More

3. 3.

   informal

   a situation or series of events, typically a scandalous or discreditable one.

   "maybe something positive will come out of the whole awful business"

   synonyms:

   affair, matter, thing, issue, case, set of circumstances, circumstance,situation, occasion, experience, event, incident, happening,occurrence, phenomenon, eventuality, episode, interlude, adventure "the odd business with the keys remained unexplained"

   • a difficult matter.

     "what a business!"
4. 4.

   THEATRE

   actions on stage other than dialogue.
5. 5.

   BRITISHinformal

   a very enjoyable or popular person or thing.

   "this brandy is the business"

Origin

Old English bisignis ‘anxiety’ (see busy, -ness); the sense ‘state of being busy’ was used from Middle English down to the 18th century, but is now differentiated asbusyness . The use ‘appointed task’ dates from late Middle English, and from it all the other current senses have developed.

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Use over time for: business