business
 busi·ness (bĭzʹnĭs)n.
1.
a. The occupation, work, or trade in which a person is engaged:
the wholesale food business.
b. A specific occupation or pursuit:
the best designer in the business.
2. Commercial, industrial, or professional dealings:
new systems now being used in business.
3. A commercial enterprise or establishment:
bought his uncle's business.
4. Volume or amount of commercial trade:
Business had fallen off.
5. Commercial dealings; patronage:
took her business to a trustworthy salesperson.
6.
a. One's rightful or proper concern or interest: “The business of America is business” (Calvin Coolidge).
b. Something involving one personally:
It's none of my business.
7. Serious work or endeavor:
got right down to business.
8. An affair or matter: “We will proceed no further in this business” (Shakespeare).
9. An incidental action performed by an actor on the stage to fill a pause between lines or to provide interesting detail.
10. Informal. Verbal abuse; scolding:
gave me the business for being late.
11. Obsolete. The condition of being busy. [Middle English businesse, from bisi, busy. See busy.]
Synonyms: business, industry, commerce, trade, traffic
These nouns apply to forms of activity that have the objective of supplying commodities. Business pertains broadly to commercial, financial, and industrial activity: decided to go into the oil business. Industry entails the production and manufacture of goods or commodities, especially on a large scale: the computer industry. Commerce and trade refer to the exchange and distribution of goods or commodities: laws regulating interstate commerce; involved in the domestic fur trade. Traffic pertains in particular to businesses engaged in the transportation of goods or passengers: renovated the docks to attract shipping traffic. The word may also suggest illegal trade: discovered a brisk traffic in stolen goods. See also synonyms at affair
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