Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BUR'TON, n.

A small tackle formed by two blocks or pulleys, used to set up or tighten the topmost shrouds, and for various other purposes; called also top-burton-tackle. – Mar. Dict.

BUR'Y, n. [ber'ry.]

This word is a different orthography of burg, burh, borough. It signifies a house, habitation or castle, and is retained in many names of places, as in Shrewsbury, Danbury, Aldermanbury. The word is used by Grew, for burrow.

BUR-Y, v.t. [ber'ry; Sax. byrian, burgan, to bury; byrgen, a tomb or sepulcher; allied to beorgan, to save.]

1. To deposit a deceased person in the grave; to inter a corpse; to entomb.
2. To cover with earth, as seed sown.
3. To hide; to conceal; to overwhelm; to cover with anything; as, to bury any one in the ruins of a city.
4. To withdraw or conceal in retirement; as, to bury one's self in a monastery or in solitude.
5. To commit to the water; to deposit in the ocean; as, dead bodies buried in the deep.
6. To place one thing within another. Thy name so buried in her. – Shak.
7. To forget and forgive; to hide in oblivion; as, to bury an injury. To bury the hatchet, in the striking metaphorical language of American Indians, is to lay aside the instruments of war, forget injuries, and make peace.

BUR'Y-ING, n.

The act of interring the dead; sepulture. – John xii. 7.

BUR'Y-ING, ppr.

Interring; hiding; covering with earth; overwhelming.

BUR'Y-ING-PLACE, n.

A grave-yard; a place appropriated to the sepulture of the dead; a church-yard.

BUSH, n. [D. bosch; G. busch; Dan. busk; Sw. buska; It. bosco; Sp. bosque; Port. bosque; whence Sp. boscage, Fr. bocage, It. boscata, a grove or cluster of trees. Qu. Gr. βοσκω, L. pasco, originally, to feed on sprouts.]

1. A shrub with branches; a thick shrub; also, a cluster of shrubs. With hunters, a fox tail. – Spenser. Waller. Encyc. Ash.
2. An assemblage of branches interwoven. – Encyc.
3. A branch of a tree fixed or hung out as a tavern sign. Hence, since the branch has been discontinued, a coronated frame of wood hung out as a tavern sign, is so called. Hence the English proverb, “Good wine needs no bush.” – Encyc. [I know not that this word is thus used in the United States.]
4. A circle of metal let into the sheaves of such blocks as have iron pins, to prevent their wearing. – Mar. Dict. The word is applicable to a like circle in other round holes, as to the key-hole of a watch, the vent of a gun, &c. This word when applied to sheaves is called bush, but when applied to the circular iron of a cart wheel is, in America, called a box. Qu. It. bosso, the box-tree; bossolo, a little box. Johnson writes it bushel.

BUSH, v.i.

To grow thick or bushy. – Milton.

BUSH, v.t.

To furnish a block with a bush, or to line any orifice with metal to prevent wearing.

BUSH'EL, n. [Fr. boisseau; Arm. boesel; Norm. bussel; probably from boiste, boîte, a box; It. bossolo, that is, a little box.]

1. A dry measure, containing eight gallons, or four pecks. The standard English bushel, by Stat. 12 Henry VII., contains eight gallons of wheat, each gallon, eight pounds of wheat, troy weight; the pound, twelve ounces troy; the ounce, twenty sterlings, and the sterling, thirty-two grains of wheat growing in the middle of the ear. The contents are 2145.6 solid inches, equivalent to 1131 ounces and 14 pennyweights troy. – Encyc. The English bushel is used also in the United States. Bushel signifies both the quantity or capacity, and the vessel which will contain the quantity. But a vessel of this kind is not in use. The half bushel measure is used.
2. In popular language, a large quantity indefinitely. – Johnson.
3. The circle of iron in the nave of a wheel; in America, called a box. [See Bush.]

BUSH'EL-AGE, n.

A duty payable on commodities by the bushel. [Not used in the United States.]

BUSH'ET, n.

A wood.

BUSH'I-NESS, n. [from bush, bushy.]

The quality of being bushy, thick, or intermixed, like the branches of a bush.

BUSH'-MAN, n. [D. bosch-man.]

A woodsman; a name which the Dutch give to the wild and ferocious inhabitants of Africa, near the Cape of Good Hope.

BUSH'MENT, n. [from bush.]

A thicket; a cluster of a bushes. [Not used.] – Ralegh.

BUSH'Y, a. [from bush.]

1. Full of branches; thick and spreading, like a bush; as, a bushy beard or brier. – Bacon.
2. Full of bushes; overgrown with shrubs. – Dryden.

BUS'I-ED, pp.

of Busy; [pron. biz'zied.]

BUS'I-LESS, a. [biz'ziless. See Busy.]

Without business; at leisure; unemployed. – Shak.

BUS'I-LY, adv. [biz'zily.]

1. With constant occupation; actively; earnestly; as, to be busily employed.
2. With an air of hurry or importance; with too much curiosity; importunately; officiously. – Dryden.

BUS'I-NESS, n. [biz'ness. See Busy.]

1. Employment; that which occupies the time, attention and labor of men, for the purpose of profit or improvement – a word of extensive use and indefinite signification. Business is a particular occupation, as agriculture, trade, mechanic art, or profession, and when used of a particular employment, the word admits of the plural number, businesses. Business is also any temporary employment.
2. Affairs; concerns; as, a man leaves his business in an unsettled state.
3. The subject of employment; that which engages the care and attention. You are so much the business of our souls. – Dryden.
4. Serious engagement; important occupation, in distinction from trivial affairs. It should be the main business of life to serve God, and obey his commands.
5. Concern; right of action or interposing; as, what business has a man with the disputes of others?
6. A point; a matter of question; something to be examined or considered. Fitness to govern is a perplexed business. – Bacon.
7. Something to be done; employment of importance to one's interest, opposed to amusement; as, we have no business in town. They were far from the Zidonians and had no business with any one. – Judges.
8. Duty, or employment that duty enjoins. A lawyer's business is to do justice to his clients. To do the business for a man, is to kill, destroy or ruin him.

BU'SI-NESS-LIKE, a.

Being in the true manner of business.

BUSK, n. [Fr. busque.]

A piece of steel, whale-bone or wood, worn by women to strengthen their stays or to form the shape; a word dependent on fashion. – Donne.

BUSK, n.

A bush. [Not used.]

BUSK, v.i.

To be active or busy. [This is probably the Saxon word bysgian, to busy, or the Sp. buscar, to search. Bask is still used in America. See Busy. Fairfax uses it in the sense of prepare, transitively, “to busk them for the battle.”]

BUSK'ED, a.

Wearing a busk. – Pollok.