Word.ws English Dictionary

means business

means business is the third-person singular simple present indicative of mean business.

Meaning of mean business

Verb

mean business (third-person singular simple present means business, present participle meaning business, simple past and past participle meant business)

  1. (idiomatic) To be serious, especially where achieving a specific end against opposition is concerned.
    • Say in a week from now, I will undertake to deliver this most marvellous masterpiece, if 'Look here, 'Tony, I mean business, if you don't.1895, William Chambers, Robert Chambers, Chambers's journal

Questions about means business

What is means business the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Means business is the third-person singular simple present indicative of mean business.

Words near means business in the dictionary

  1. meanlings
  2. meanly
  3. meanness
  4. meannesses
  5. means
  6. means business
  7. means everything to
  8. Means grass
  9. means of exchange
  10. means of grace
  11. means of labor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: means business (page history and authors); mean 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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