What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Busy vs Engross - What's the difference?

busy | engross | Related terms |

Busy is a related term of engross.


In lang=en terms the difference between busy and engross

is that busy is to rush somebody while engross is to completely engage the attention of.

As verbs the difference between busy and engross

is that busy is to make somebody busy , to keep busy with, to occupy, to make occupied while engross is (senseid) to write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.

As an adjective busy

is crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.

As a noun busy

is a police officer.

busy

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Crowded with business or activities; having a great deal going on.
    • a busy street
  • * Shakespeare
    • To-morrow is a busy day.
  • Engaged in another activity or by someone else.
    • The director cannot see you now, he's busy .
    Her telephone has been busy all day.
    She is too busy to have time for riddles.
  • Having a lot going on; complicated or intricate.
    • Flowers, stripes, and checks in the same fabric make for a busy pattern.
  • Officious; meddling.
  • * 1603 , , IV. ii. 130:
    • I will be hanged if some eternal villain, / Some busy and insinuating rogue, / Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, / Have not devised this slander; I'll be hanged else.

    Related terms

    * busy as a beaver * busy as a bee * busybody * busyness * busy work

    Verb

  • To make somebody busy , to keep busy with, to occupy, to make occupied.
  • * On my vacation I'll busy myself with gardening.
  • To rush somebody.

    • Noun

    (busies)
  • A police officer.

    • Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words

    engross

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • (senseid) To write (a document) in large, aesthetic, and legible lettering; to make a finalized copy of.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
    • some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials
  • * De Quincey
    • laws that may be engrossed on a finger nail
  • (transitive, business, obsolete) To buy up wholesale, especially to buy the whole supply of (a commodity etc.).
  • To monopolize; to concentrate (something) in the single possession of someone, especially unfairly.
  • * 1644 , (John Milton), Aeropagitica :
    • After which time the Popes of Rome, engrossing what they pleas'd of Politicall rule into their owne hands, extended their dominion over mens eyes, as they had before over their judgements, burning and prohibiting to be read, what they fancied not
  • * 2007 , John Burrow, A History of Histories , Penguin 2009, pp. 125-6:
    • Octavian then engrosses for himself proconsular powers for ten years in all the provinces where more than one legion was stationed, giving him effective control of the army.
  • To completely engage the attention of.
    • She seems to be''' completely '''engrossed in that book.
  • (obsolete) To thicken; to condense.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.4:
    • As, when a foggy mist hath overcast / The face of heven, and the cleare ayre engroste , / The world in darkenes dwels
  • To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity.
  • * Spenser
    • waves engrossed with mud
  • * Shakespeare
    • not sleeping, to engross his idle body
  • (obsolete) To amass.
  • * Shakespeare
    • to engross up glorious deeds on my behalf

    Synonyms

    * (to buy up the whole supply of) corner the market

    Related terms

    * gross

    Coordinate terms

    * (to write out in large characters) longhand

    References

    *