Word.ws English Dictionary

meant business

meant business is the simple past and past participle 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 meant business

What is meant business the simple past and past participle of?
Meant business is the simple past and past participle of mean business.

Words near meant business in the dictionary

  1. meanspirited
  2. meanspiritedly
  3. meanspiritedness
  4. meanspo
  5. meant
  6. meant business
  7. meant everything to
  8. meant the whole world to
  9. meant the world to
  10. meant to
  11. meant to be

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: meant 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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