busybody
(ˈbɪzɪˌbɒdɪ)
[f. busy a. 5 + body n.]
a. An officious or meddlesome person; one who is improperly busy in other people's affairs.
| 1526 Tindale 1 Pet. iv. 15 Se that none of you suffre..as a busybody in other mens matters. 1530 Palsgr. 423/2 He his a busye body, il est entre-metteux. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 46 Vaine pratling busie bodies. 1679 M. Prance Addit. Narr. Pop. Plot 40 The Jesuites, who are the great Polypragmons, or Busie-bodies. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 356 A busiebody burns his own fingers. 1847 Disraeli Tancred vi. xi. 480 The most energetic men in Europe are mere busybodies. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 56 The habit of being a busybody and of doing another man's business. |
b. transf. A mirror attached to a building, reflecting a view of the street, etc. U.S.
| 1892 Outing (U.S.) Mar. 487/1 Only a ‘tell-tale mirror’—otherwise ‘a busybody’—set at a tantalizing angle outside the window. 1942 C. Morley Thorofare xxxv. 159 One of those telltale mirrors called ‘busybodies’ projecting from a three-sided bay upstairs. |
Hence busybody v., (a) intr., to be or behave like a busybody, to interfere, also with about; (b) trans., to meddle in, concern oneself improperly in (rare); busybodied a., of the nature of a busybody, meddlesome (rare); busybodying, vbl. n., acting the busybody; ppl. a. acting as a busybody; busybodyish; busybodyism; busybodyness.
| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. iv. §23 It is not out of Curiosity, or Busybodinesse, to be medling in other mens Lines. 1812 G. Colman Br. Grins, Lady of Wr. ii. xvii, The busybodied, brainless knight. 1828 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXIII. 129 Curiosity..and a habit of busybodyism. a 1849 Poe Myst. Marie Roget Wks. (1872) 226 Romantic busybodyism. 1857 Chamb. Jrnl. XX. 427 The whole system of busy⁓bodying and scandal-mongering. 1863 Mrs. C. Clarke Shaks. Char. vi. 160 A fussy, busy-bodying old woman. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. III. x. ii. 234 A rather impudent busybodyish fellow. 1882 Fraser's Mag. XXVI. 53 Merely the result of..a sort of intellectual busybodyness. 1920 G. Bell Let. 29 Nov. (1927) II. xix. 576 All the busybodies come in to say what they're busybodying and have to be listened to. 1939 A. Thirkell Brandons xi. 306 Lady Norton is always busybodying about her nieces. 1966 ‘M. Innes’ Bloody Wood i. vii. 58 ‘Did I see you trying to get some sense out of Diana Page?’.. ‘I did have a slight impulse to busybody.’ 1978 I. Murdoch Sea 270 Gilbert, bursting with curiosity, was longing to busybody about. 1978 Washington Post 16 Jan. a20 Some critics..have expressed anxiety that the federal government will..once again be..busybodying people's lives. |