Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter B - Page 97

Business (n.) That which busies one, or that which engages the time, attention, or labor of any one, as his principal concern or interest, whether for a longer or shorter time; constant employment; regular occupation; as, the business of life; business before pleasure.

Business (n.) Any particular occupation or employment engaged in for livelihood or gain, as agriculture, trade, art, or a profession.

Business (n.) Financial dealings; buying and selling; traffic in general; mercantile transactions.

Business (n.) That which one has to do or should do; special service, duty, or mission.

Business (n.) Affair; concern; matter; -- used in an indefinite sense, and modified by the connected words.

Business (n.) The position, distribution, and order of persons and properties on the stage of a theater, as determined by the stage manager in rehearsal.

Business (n.) Care; anxiety; diligence.

Businesslike (a.) In the manner of one transacting business wisely and by right methods.

Busk (n.) A thin, elastic strip of metal, whalebone, wood, or other material, worn in the front of a corset.

Busked (imp. & p. p.) of Busk

Busk (v. t. & i.) To prepare; to make ready; to array; to dress.

Busk (v. t. & i.) To go; to direct one's course.

Busked (a.) Wearing a busk.

Busket (n.) A small bush; also, a sprig or bouquet.

Busket (n.) A part of a garden devoted to shrubs.

Buskin (n.) A strong, protecting covering for the foot, coming some distance up the leg.

Buskin (n.) A similar covering for the foot and leg, made with very thick soles, to give an appearance of elevation to the stature; -- worn by tragic actors in ancient Greece and Rome. Used as a symbol of tragedy, or the tragic drama, as distinguished from comedy.

Buskined (a.) Wearing buskins.

Buskined (a.) Trodden by buskins; pertaining to tragedy.

Busky (a.) See Bosky, and 1st Bush, n.

Buss (n.) A kiss; a rude or playful kiss; a smack.

Bussed (imp. & p. p.) of Buss

Bussing (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Buss

Buss (v. t.) To kiss; esp. to kiss with a smack, or rudely.

Buss (n.) A small strong vessel with two masts and two cabins; -- used in the herring fishery.

Bust (n.) A piece of sculpture representing the upper part of the human figure, including the head, shoulders, and breast.

Bust (n.) The portion of the human figure included between the head and waist, whether in statuary or in the person; the chest or thorax; the upper part of the trunk of the body.

Bustard (n.) A bird of the genus Otis.

Buster (n.) Something huge; a roistering blade; also, a spree.

Bustled (imp. & p. p.) of Bustle

Bustling (n.) of Bustle

Bustle (v. i.) To move noisily; to be rudely active; to move in a way to cause agitation or disturbance; as, to bustle through a crowd.

Bustle (n.) Great stir; agitation; tumult from stirring or excitement.

Bustle (n.) A kind of pad or cushion worn on the back below the waist, by women, to give fullness to the skirts; -- called also bishop, and tournure.

Bustler (n.) An active, stirring person.

Bustling (a.) Agitated; noisy; tumultuous; characterized by confused activity; as, a bustling crowd.

Bustoes (pl. ) of Busto

Busto (n.) A bust; a statue.

Busy (a.) Engaged in some business; hard at work (either habitually or only for the time being); occupied with serious affairs; not idle nor at leisure; as, a busy merchant.

Busy (a.) Constantly at work; diligent; active.

Busy (a.) Crowded with business or activities; -- said of places and times; as, a busy street.

Busy (a.) Officious; meddling; foolish active.

Busy (a.) Careful; anxious.

Busied (imp. & p. p.) of Busy

Busying (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Busy

Busy (v. t.) To make or keep busy; to employ; to engage or keep engaged; to occupy; as, to busy one's self with books.

Busybodies (pl. ) of Busybody

Busybody (n.) One who officiously concerns himself with the affairs of others; a meddling person.

But (adv. & conj.) Except with; unless with; without.

But (adv. & conj.) Except; besides; save.

But (adv. & conj.) Excepting or excluding the fact that; save that; were it not that; unless; -- elliptical, for but that.

But (adv. & conj.) Otherwise than that; that not; -- commonly, after a negative, with that.

But (adv. & conj.) Only; solely; merely.

But (adv. & conj.) On the contrary; on the other hand; only; yet; still; however; nevertheless; more; further; -- as connective of sentences or clauses of a sentence, in a sense more or less exceptive or adversative; as, the House of Representatives passed the bill, but the Senate dissented; our wants are many, but quite of another kind.

But (prep., adv. & conj.) The outer apartment or kitchen of a two-roomed house; -- opposed to ben, the inner room.

But (n.) A limit; a boundary.

But (n.) The end; esp. the larger or thicker end, or the blunt, in distinction from the sharp, end. See 1st Butt.

Butted (imp. & p. p.) of But

Butting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of But

But (v. i.) See Butt, v., and Abut, v.

Butane (n.) An inflammable gaseous hydrocarbon, C4H10, of the marsh gas, or paraffin, series.

Butcher (n.) One who slaughters animals, or dresses their flesh for market; one whose occupation it is to kill animals for food.

Butcher (n.) A slaughterer; one who kills in large numbers, or with unusual cruelty; one who causes needless loss of life, as in battle.

Butchered (imp. & p. p.) of Butcher

Butchering (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Butcher

Butcher (v. t.) To kill or slaughter (animals) for food, or for market; as, to butcher hogs.

Butcher (v. t.) To murder, or kill, especially in an unusually bloody or barbarous manner.

Butchering (n.) The business of a butcher.

Butchering (n.) The act of slaughtering; the act of killing cruelly and needlessly.

Butcherliness (n.) Butchery quality.

Butcherly (a.) Like a butcher; without compunction; savage; bloody; inhuman; fell.

Butcher's broom () A genus of plants (Ruscus); esp. R. aculeatus, which has large red berries and leaflike branches. See Cladophyll.

Butchery (n.) The business of a butcher.

Butchery (n.) Murder or manslaughter, esp. when committed with unusual barbarity; great or cruel slaughter.

Butchery (n.) A slaughterhouse; the shambles; a place where blood is shed.

Butler (n.) An officer in a king's or a nobleman's household, whose principal business it is to take charge of the liquors, plate, etc.; the head servant in a large house.

Butlerage (n.) A duty of two shillings on every tun of wine imported into England by merchant strangers; -- so called because paid to the king's butler for the king.

Butlership (n.) The office of a butler.

Butment (n.) A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier.

Butment (n.) The mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained, or by which the end of a bridge without arches is supported.

Butt (v. t.) Alt. of But

But (v. t.) A limit; a bound; a goal; the extreme bound; the end.

But (v. t.) The thicker end of anything. See But.

But (v. t.) A mark to be shot at; a target.

But (v. t.) A person at whom ridicule, jest, or contempt is directed; as, the butt of the company.

But (v. t.) A push, thrust, or sudden blow, given by the head of an animal; as, the butt of a ram.

But (v. t.) A thrust in fencing.

But (v. t.) A piece of land left unplowed at the end of a field.

But (v. t.) A joint where the ends of two objects come squarely together without scarfing or chamfering; -- also called butt joint.

But (v. t.) The end of a connecting rod or other like piece, to which the boxing is attached by the strap, cotter, and gib.

But (v. t.) The portion of a half-coupling fastened to the end of a hose.

But (v. t.) The joint where two planks in a strake meet.

But (v. t.) A kind of hinge used in hanging doors, etc.; -- so named because fastened on the edge of the door, which butts against the casing, instead of on its face, like the strap hinge; also called butt hinge.

But (v. t.) The thickest and stoutest part of tanned oxhides, used for soles of boots, harness, trunks.

But (v. t.) The hut or shelter of the person who attends to the targets in rifle practice.

Butted (imp. & p. p.) of Butt

Butting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Butt

Butt (v. i.) To join at the butt, end, or outward extremity; to terminate; to be bounded; to abut.

Butt (v. i.) To thrust the head forward; to strike by thrusting the head forward, as an ox or a ram. [See Butt, n.]

Butt (v. t.) To strike by thrusting the head against; to strike with the head.

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