busybody

English

Alternative forms

• busy body

Etymology

busy +‎ body

Noun

busybody (plural busybodies)

1. Someone who interferes with others; one who is nosy, intrusive or meddlesome.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, 1 Peter iiij:[15], folio ccxc, verso:

     Se that none of you ſuffre as a murtherer / or as a thefe / or an evyll doar / or as a buſybody in wother mens matters.

   • 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Paulina”, in Villette. , volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., , →OCLC, page 22:

     Candidly speaking, I thought her a little busy-body; but her father, blind like other parents, seemed perfectly content to let her wait on him, and even wonderfully soothed by her offices.

   • 1915, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, “Love Takes Up the Glass of Time”, in Anne of the Island, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, →OCLC, page 325:

     But I couldn’t—and I can’t tell you, either, what it’s meant to me these two years to believe you were going to marry him, and be told every week by some busybody that your engagement was on the point of being announced.

2. A device consisting of three mirrors that, when attached to the wall of a house, allows an occupant to see who is at the front door without a direct line of sight.

Synonyms

• (one who interferes or is nosy or intrusive): marplot, meddler, kibitzer, nosy parker

Derived terms

• busybodying
• busybodyism

Translations

Verb

busybody (third-person singular simple present busybodies, present participle busybodying, simple past and past participle busybodied)

1. (intransitive) To meddle or interfere.