Word.ws English Dictionary

have no business

have no business verb: to not have a right or privilege to do something.

Verb

have no business (third-person singular simple present has no business, present participle having no business, simple past and past participle had no business)

  1. To not have a right or privilege to do something.
    • We take this step not because this Court's criminal procedure rulings are somehow unimportant.... Instead, we abandon Teagues test because it poses a question this Court has no business' asking.2021, Edwards v. Vannoy (U.S. Supreme Court No. 19–5807), Justice Gorsuch concurring
  2. To not have a right or privilege to be in a certain place.
    • 'You have no business being here. You need to go back to the office and sign in. Go down this hall,' he said, pointing, 'and turn right, down the stairs, and then right again.' He ushered her out the door.2014, Connie Willis, Passage

Forms of have no business

third-person singular presenthas no business
present participlehaving no business
past participlehad no business
pasthad no business

Questions about have no business

What does have no business mean?
Have no business means to not have a right or privilege to do something.
What part of speech is have no business?
Have no business is a verb.
What is the past tense of have no business?
The past tense of have no business is had no business.

Words near have no business in the dictionary

  1. have more chins than a Chinese phone book
  2. have more chins than a Chinese phonebook
  3. have more chins than Chinatown
  4. have more money than God
  5. have more of something in one's finger than
  6. have no business
  7. have no fear of ice cold beer
  8. have no idea
  9. have no right
  10. have no time for
  11. have no use for

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have no business (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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