Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.