BUSINESS, noun biz'ness. [See Busy.] Employment; that which occupies the time, attention and labor of men, for the purpose of profit or improvement--a word of extensive use and indefinite signification. business is a particular occupation, as agriculture, trade, mechanic art, or profession, and when used of a particular employment, the word admits of the plural number, businesses. business is also any temporary employment. 1. Affairs; concerns; as, a man leaves his business in an unsettled state. 2. The subject of employment; that which engages the care and attention. You are so much the business of our souls. 3. Serious engagement; important occupation, in distinction from trivial affairs. It should be the main business of life to serve God, and obey his commands. 4. Concern; right of action or interposing. 'What business has a man with the disputes of others?' 5. A point; a matter of question; something to be examined or considered. Fitness to govern is a perplexed business 6. Something to be done; employment of importance to one's interest, opposed to amusement; as, we have no business in town. They were far from the Zidonians and had no business with any one. 7. Duty, or employment that duty enjoins. A lawyer's business is to do justice to his clients. To do the business for a man, is to kill, destroy or ruin him.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI