Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.