Definition of: business

(biz′nis) noun
1. A pursuit or occupation; trade; profession; calling.
2. Commercial affairs.
3. A matter or affair.
4. Interest; concern; duty.
5. A commercial enterprise or establishment.
6. Those details other than and exclusive of dialog, by which actors portray their parts and interpret a play.
7. (biz′ē·nis) Obs. The state of being busy: now busyness.
—to mean business To be serious. [OE bysignis]
—busi·ness·like adjective Synonyms: art, avocation, barter, calling, commerce, concern, craft, duty, employment, handicraft, industry, job, labor, occupation, profession, trade, trading, traffic, vocation, work. A business is what one follows regularly and for profit; an occupation is what he is engaged in, either continuously or temporarily, for any purpose, whether of profit, or of amusement, learning, philanthropy, etc. Pursuit is an occupation which one follows with ardor. A profession implies scholarship; as, the learned professions. A vocation or a calling is that to which one feels himself called, as by special fitness or sense of duty, often now also used to characterize an occupation or profession; an avocation is a secondary interest, including hobbies and other activities whether for pleasure or profit, that interrupt one's vocation or business or that may parallel and eventually become a vocation. A job is a piece of business viewed and paid for as a single undertaking; colloquially, any regular employment is often termed a job. Trade and commerce may be used as equivalents, but trade may have a more limited application; as, the trade of a village, the commerce of a nation; in the special sense, a trade is an occupation involving manual training and skilled labor. Barter is the direct exchange of commodities without use of money. Work is any application of energy to secure a result, or the result thus secured; we may speak of the work of an artist, or of a janitor. A single branch of productive work is called an industry; as, the steel industry. Labor is ordinarily used, in this connection, for unskilled work; employment for work done in the service of another. Art in the industrial sense is a system of rules and methods for accomplishing some practical result; as, the art of printing; collectively, the arts. A craft is some occupation requiring technical skill or manual dexterity, or the persons, collectively, engaged in its exercise; as, the weaver's craft. Compare ACTION, DUTY, TRAFFIC, TRANSACTION, WORK. Antonyms: idleness, inaction, inactivity, indolence, leisure, unemployment, vacation.