Emily Dickinson Lexicon

business, n. [OE; see busy, adj. and ED letters.] (webplay: affairs, care, God, leaves, life, souls, subject).

1. Work; affair; occupation; (see Proverbs 22:29); [fig.] ultimate destination.
2. Errand; task; duty; pursuit; purpose; stewardship; matter requiring serious attention; [fig.] charge; calling; destiny; mission; (see Luke 2:49).
3. Concern; relation; interaction; (see Romans 16:2).

bust (-s), n. [Fr. < It. 'trunk of upper portion of the body'.] (webplay: head).

Statuette; sculpture of a person's head; marble figure of a human upper torso.

bustle, n. [see bustle, v.] (webplay: stir).

1. Rush; gush; flow; surge; effusion; sound of water.
2. Commotion; activity; movement; agitation; disturbance; burst of energy; noisy rapid motion; [fig.] expiration; last exhale; final breath.

bustle (-ed, -s), v. [ME; see busy, adj.]

1. Work; fuss; hustle; keep busy.
2. Stir; rustle; move around; do one's duty; [fig.] whisper; murmur; speak softly.

bustling, verbal adv. [see bustle, v.]

Actively; busily; hurriedly; noisily; [sound play] buzzing constantly.

busy (busier), adj. [OE.] (webplay: bee, come, day, employed, interruption, man, meddling, posting, see, species, troublesome, view, visible).

1. Diligent; busy; industrious; occupied; hard-working; not lazy; diligently employed; [quoted from children's hymn by Isaac Watts 'Against Idleness and Mischief'.]
2. Crumbling; breaking down; [fig.] chemically active; subject to natural processes of decay.
3. Scratching; scribbling; marking; [fig.] quickly writing; constantly inscribing; moving by power of an author's hand.
4. Active; astir; dynamic; constantly moving; [fig.] fostering; raising; nurturing; cultivating; bringing up; stimulating growth.
5. Burning; glowing; shining; flickering; moving deftly in the process of combustion.
6. Officious; intrusive; obtrusive; interfering; invasive; encroaching; impinging; trespassing; [fig.] fast-growing; spreading out aggressively.
7. Careful; attentive; engaged; deeply engrossed; occupied without ceasing; employed with constant attention; [fig.] distracted; preoccupied; not able to be interrupted.

but, adv. [see but, conj.]

1. Only; just; merely; such a low number as; such a small thing as.
2. Even; so much as.
3. Scarcely; hardly; barely.

but, conj. [OE < West Germanic bi, by + ûtan, out.]

1. Yet; still; though; however; nevertheless; nonetheless; even so; all the same.
2. And; moreover; furthermore; in addition.
3. Paradoxically; in comparison; on the other hand; [fig.] ironically; unexpectedly.
4. Notwithstanding; even though; when in contrast.

but, prep. [see but, conj.]

1. Save; except; besides; unless; if not.
2. Rather; instead; alternatively.
3. Without; apart from; leaving out; with the exception of.

buttercup (-s, -'s), n. [compound of OE 'fatty substance obtained from cream by churning' + L. 'drinking vessel'; see cup, n.] (webplay: bright, flowers).

1. Brilliant yellow field flower; bright golden meadow blossom; [personification] suitor; wooer; romantic partner.
2. Golden-cup bloom; Crow-foot blossom; King-cup species of Ranunculus.