Word.ws English Dictionary

forebusy

forebusy verb: to busy beforehand; preoccupy.

Verb

forebusy (third-person singular simple present forebusies, present participle forebusying, simple past and past participle forebusied)

  1. (nonstandard, rare, transitive) To busy beforehand; preoccupy.
    • Springs up to know all life, the secrets learn / Of science and time's truths arcane; projects / Evil would fulfil, that thus forebusied, soul, / All virtue of self-ascription to its Lord Might lose.1877, Philip James Bailey, Festus
    • Or who might be forebusied, and onbeloaded with work?2011, David Cowley, How We'd Talk If The English Had Won in 1066

Forms of forebusy

third-person singular presentforebusies
present participleforebusying
past participleforebusied
pastforebusied

Origin of forebusy

From Old English forebiseġian, forebisġian, equivalent to fore- + busy.

Questions about forebusy

What does forebusy mean?
Forebusy means to busy beforehand; preoccupy.
What part of speech is forebusy?
Forebusy is a verb.
What is the past tense of forebusy?
The past tense of forebusy is forebusied.

Words near forebusy in the dictionary

  1. forebrought
  2. forebuilding
  3. forebuildings
  4. forebulge
  5. forebulges
  6. forebusy
  7. forebuy
  8. foreby
  9. forebye
  10. forecabin
  11. forecabins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forebusy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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