busy

1. adjective

1)

the campaign volunteers have been busy

Syn:

occupied, engaged, involved, employed, working, hard at work; rushed off one's feet, hard-pressed, swamped, up to one's neck; on the job, absorbed, engrossed, immersed, preoccupied; informal (as) busy as a bee, on the go, hard at it

Ant:

idle

2)

sorry, she's busy at the moment

Syn:

unavailable, engaged, occupied; working, in a meeting, on duty; informal tied up

Ant:

free

3)

the busy streets of Toronto

Syn:

hectic, active, lively; crowded, bustling, abuzz, swarming, teeming, full, thronged

4)

a busy design

Syn:

ornate, overelaborate, overblown, overwrought, overdone, fussy, cluttered, overworked

Ant:

restrained, quiet

2. verb

he busied himself with paperwork

Syn:

occupy, involve, engage, concern, absorb, engross, immerse, preoccupy; distract, divert

••

busy, assiduous, diligent, engaged, industrious, sedulous

There are varying degrees of busyness. Busy implies actively and attentively involved in work or a pastime (too busy to come to the phone). It can also be used to describe intensive activity of any kind (a busy intersection; a busy day). Someone who is engaged is also busy, but in a more focused way (engaged in compiling a dictionary). Diligent is used to describe earnest and constant effort, and it often connotes enjoyment of or dedication to what one is doing (diligent efforts to rescue injured animals). To be industrious is to be more focused still, often with a definite goal in mind (an industrious employee working for a promotion). Sedulous also applies to goal-oriented activity, but it suggests more close care and perseverance than industrious does (a sedulous investigation of the accident). The award for concentrated effort goes to the person who is assiduous, which suggests painstaking preoccupation with a specific task (an assiduous student is the one most likely to win his or her teacher's favor).