Syn. -- Diligent; industrious; assiduous; active; occupied; engaged.
Bus"y (bz"z), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Busied (bz"zd); p. pr. & vb. n. Busying.] [AS. bysgian.] To make or keep busy; to employ; to engage or keep engaged; to occupy; as, to busy one's self with books.
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels.
Shak.
Bus"y*bod`y (-bd`), n.; pl. Busybodies (-bd`z). One who officiously concerns himself with the affairs of others; a meddling person.
And not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
1 Tim. v. 13.
But (bt), prep., adv. & conj. [OE. bute, buten, AS. btan, without, on the outside, except, besides; pref. be- + tan outward, without, fr. t out. Primarily, btan, as well as t, is an adverb. √198. See By, Out; cf. About.] 1. Except with; unless with; without. [Obs.]
So insolent that he could not go but either spurning equals or trampling on his inferiors.
Fuller.
Touch not the cat but a glove.
Motto of the Mackintoshes.