busy
actively or fully engaged or occupied
How often you will meet it
Rank 1,238 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 14,707 times across 155,139 chapters — 0.007% of every word in the library.
What it means
adjective
- actively or fully engaged or occupied busy with her worka busy man
- overcrowded or cluttered with detail also: fussy a busy paintinga fussy design
- intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner also: interfering, meddlesome, meddling, officious, busybodied an interfering old womanbustling about self-importantly making an officious nuisance of himself
- crowded with or characterized by much activity a very busy weeka busy life
- (of facilities such as telephones or lavatories) unavailable for use by anyone else or indicating unavailability; (`engaged' is a British term for a busy telephone line) also: engaged, in use her line is busyreceptionists' telephones are always engaged
verb
- keep busy with also: occupy She busies herself with her butterfly collection
busy in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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The people could see that they were very busy making the Emperor’s new clothes ready.
The Yellow Fairy Book: The Grateful Beasts · World Traditions (Celtic, Norse, Asian & Persian) · Chapter 1
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The mother, too, was busy with deep thoughts, as one could see from her worried expression.
Cornelli · Johanna Spyri · Chapter 1
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O come, come away From labor now reposing, Let busy care a while forbear; O come, come away.
The White Christmas and other Merry · Walter Ben Hare · Chapter 1
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Its barrenness reminded her of Treeless Street, lined with little children, and her busy thoughts traveled back to that.
Gloria and Treeless Street · Annie Hamilton Donnell · Chapter 1
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The busy days went on, and the work grew more absorbing, the atmosphere more charged with an electricity which foretold tempest.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · Chapter 1