Phrase guide

busy as a bee

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /ˈbɪziæzəˈbiː/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -iː

1

adj

Meaning 1

Very active; working constantly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, not-comparable

Qualifier: simile

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: busy as a beaver, busy as a one-armed paperhanger, busy as a dyke in a hardware store

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Compare Middle English bisy as bees.

Across languages

Translations

10 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: работлив като пчела (rabotliv kato pčela) — working constantly
  • Czech: pilný jako mravenec — working constantly
  • Czech: pilný jako včelka — working constantly
  • Finnish: häärätä — working constantly
  • Finnish: hyöriä — working constantly
  • German: emsig wie eine Biene — working constantly
  • Polish: pracowity jak mrówka — working constantly
  • Serbo-Croatian: marljiv kao pčelica — working constantly
  • Swedish: flitig som en myra — working constantly
  • Swedish: flitig som ett bi — working constantly