Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a male who has ‘wandering hands’.

1931

P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] She [...] slapped my hand away. ‘Nix, busyhands,’ she said.

1. a gossip, a tattle-tale.

1970		F. Collymore Notes for Gloss. of Barbadian Dial. 24: Busylickum. A busybody.
1992–97		Mike Pawka / Kingsley ‘Patois Dictionary’ on Fujen Dept of Eng. 🌐 BUSYLICKUM: a busybody.

2. gossip.

2002

News Oct. on Saxtet Publications 🌐 Busylickum for quartet, by Nigel Wood: pantomime gossips perform a burlesque Viennese waltz, occasionally slowing down a little for breath under a Barbados-blue sky. How’s that for a programme note? A little more seriously, this is a high-energy romp where the excitement still leaves plenty of scope for subtlety and substance. It will be recorded on Saxtet Publications’ forthcoming CD with the Paragon Saxophone Quartet.

see separate phr.

1. (later use US, also be busy) to have sexual intercourse.

1612		Pasquil’s Night-cap 27: Thou has beene too busy with a man, / And art with child.
1687		Dryden The Hind and the Panther in Works (1899) III line 1460: The Wolf has been too busie in your bed.
1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband II i: You would have the Impudence to Sup, and be busy with her.
1822		R. Nares Gloss. (1888) I 122/2: busy. To be busy, to have sexual intercourse.
1964		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 30: Oh, daughter, oh, daughter, / You were a silly fool, / To get busy with a man, / With a tool like a mule.
1987		Rooftop ‘Caught Out There’ 🎵 We forget about our girls / Cos we was gettin’ busy in another world.
1990		N. George ‘Sweet Funny Robin’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 141: [He] watched them rob Goofy and get busy with Minnie.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 164: Coco knew that people got busy during [prison] visits.
2007		R. Milward Apples (2023) 119: I got laid a couple of times over Cerimbo — me and Matty got busy on New Year’s Eve.
2016		‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in Hazlitt.net 8 Jan. 🌐 We don’t have sexual intercourse—we ‘get busy,’ ‘hit it,’ ‘do the nasty,’ ‘get some,’ ‘score,’ and perform countless other acts that we refer to by adorable, horrifying, and illuminating turns of phrase.

2. (also make oneself busy) to steal.

1866		J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 346: So far from encouraging me in dishonest courses, Long George never went out [...] without warning me against them. ‘Don’t you go making yourself busy.’.
1910		Wodehouse Gentleman of Leisure Ch. xviii: But he ain’t no vally. He’s come to see no one don’t get busy wit’ de jools.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 95: ‘Be gettin’ busy, my man,’ said Jimmy.

3. (US black) to fight.

1992		Source 40: Let’s split before they get busy, G.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
2010		W.D. Myers Cruisers 91: ‘We need to get some brothers together and just get busy with the Sons of the Confederacy and anybody else who needs to get his head whipped’.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 191: We got busy with the police [i.e. guards] [...] We fought. They busted our heads; we busted their heads.

4. to interfere.

1967		J. Breslin World of Jimmy Breslin (1968) 123: The bartender got mad at the guy, the old woman screamed, and then everybody got busy.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 101: That’s none of your business. Don’t get busy, okay?
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 52: Something in that casual shrug says don’t get busy, mate.