Green’s Dictionary of Slang

business n.

1. euphs. used in sexual contexts.

(a) (also biz) sexual intercourse, irrespective of sexuality.

[UK]W. Adlington (trans) Golden Asse 89: In the meane season this minion louer cast his wife on the bottome of the tubbe, and had his pleasure with her [...] til as they had both ended their busines,.
[UK]Rowlands ‘A Whoremonger’ Knave of Clubs 5: One night, kind Jone [...] she stript off all, / And coming like a wench of willing sprite / To doe her Maisters busines in the night, Such tumbling in the bed (belike) did keepbusinesse, / She wak’d her quiet Mistris out of sleepe.
[UK]J. Harington Epigrams IV No. 335: Art thou so like a foole, and wittoll lead, / To thinke he doth the businesse of thy wife? He doth thy business, I dare lay my life.
[UK]Middleton Women Beware Women I i: [He will] follow my business roundly, And make you a grandmother in forty weeks.
[UK]J. Taylor ‘A Whore’ in Works 100/1: And Lais of Corinth, ask’d Demosthenes / One hundred crownes for one night’s businesse.
[UK]H. Nevile Newes from the New Exchange 17: Tom Temple [...] could have plied her business.
[UK]Wandring Whore I 10: Mrs. Simpson in Ram-Alley will furnish you with fit rooms to do the business in.
[UK] in D’Urfey V i: Now will this damn’d bulking Quean be too witty for me [...] Uds hash! I’ll e’en proceed to the Business, and say nothing.
[UK]M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 3: We to the business stifly stood / And did as long as doing’s good.
[UK]Dryden Juvenal VI 120: The sotted Moon-Calf gapes, and staring on, Sees his own Business by another done.
[UK]Farquhar Love and a Bottle II i: The constant effects of debauching a Woman are, that she infallibly loves the Man for doing the business.
[UK]N. Ward ‘A Step to Stir-Bitch-Fair’ Writings (1704) 251: I’ll engage, said I, you are able to do Business still, if you would but give you Mind to’t.
[UK]N. Ward ‘A Walk to Islington’ Writings (1704) 63: Where we Prattled and Tattled, tho’ what ’twas we said, / If you’d have me Discover, indeed I must fail you, / Because ’twas on Business improper to tell you.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy VI 203: [Marry off girls] in their Teens; ... or they will all Know what the Business means.
[UK] ‘The Masquerade Ball’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 235: O! a Masquerade’s a fine Place, / For opening of your Cases: / For here you’ll get your business done, / And never show your Faces.
[UK]Laugh and Be Fat 79: The Wife consented and the Business being done with Jerk, he gave her Directions how she should manage the Matter.
[UK]Spy on Mother Midnight II 33: If I can believe my Grandfather, who liv’d in those demure-looking Times, there was as much Business transacted in the Dark then as now.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 33: As sure as cits of London / Oft leave their spouses’ business undone, / And trudge away to Russel-street / Some little dirty whore to meet, / Whilst the poor wife, to cure her dumps, / Works his apprentice to the stumps.
[UK] ‘Some Love to Stand’ Icky-Wickey Songster 14: Then on the Mall, ve’ll treat our gal, / And for business, right and hot.
[UK] ‘Lord Bateman’s Long Jock’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 21: Then he laid her down upon her back, / And in a very little time, / He done her business in a crack.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 26 Apr. 2/2: Miss Flossie Fewclothes [...] popped her head out of the window the night before last and told them to ‘cheese it or come in and get to business’ .
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 36: Besogne, f. Copulation; ‘business’.
[Aus]Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 141: Street women who do business in by-ways, alleys, or parks are called by the assignation-house and brothel-keepers, shinglers.
[UK]Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 34: They proceeded to business at once. Mrs. H.— pulled up her skirts, unbuttoned her drawers and took them off.
[US]Williams & Spivey ‘Furniture Man Blues’ 🎵 [Spivey:] Furniture man, won’t you crawl around here after dark? / [Johnson:] If I crawl around mama, will you let me park? / [Spivey:] Yes, and we’ll do some business.
[US]J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 223: I sure got a big business to do, said Casy. They laughed.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 37/2: Business, the. [...] 5. The act of sexual intercourse.
[US]J. Blake letter 3 June in Joint (1972) 181: I took a fabulously beautiful spade stud to the party [...] He was a great success at the gala and wound up taking care of the biz with some predatory gray chick in the john.
[US]San Diego Sailor 33: I got down to business. I was [...] eager as hell to get at him.
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 408: Their husbands had caught them doing the business with other men.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 231: business. […] 2. Sexual action.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Real Thing 226: Were you doing any business there . . . with Andrea?
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Business. Homosexual activity. As in ‘doing the business’.
[NZ]A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 71: You do your bizniz with your girlfriend during recreation times, in your cell or his.
[US]L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] Armando was asking Roger if everyone from Detroit liked giving the business to dogs and other stray animals [...] or was it just the pendejos like Roger?

(b) a prostitute’s euph. for paid intercourse.

[UK]Progress of a Rake 29: A Girl said, prithee, Sir, do you / In Time of term your Business do? / Why faith, said Richard, that’s my Pleasure.
[US]Broadway Belle (NY) 1 Jan. n.p.: The damp, unpleasant nights [have] banished the ‘gay girls’ [but] the arrival of fine, clear weather will be the signal for a return of ‘business’.
[UK]J. Curtis They Drive by Night 263: Ah, well, to business. My business, I mean, honey, not yours, although I wouldn’t say no to that if I was pressed.
[NZ]G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 54: You want to do business? she said.
[UK]J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 294: ‘Doin’ business, luv?’ asks the driver, grinning at the prostitute sheltering there from the light drizzle.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 245: Looking for business, darling?
[UK]B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 207: ‘What, love?’ she asked [...] ‘Are you wanting business?’.

(c) (US) prostitution as a trade or act.

[US]R.P. Robinson Life and Conversations 7: Let her [a courtezan] go back into her old business—open house and make her living by her trade, like an honest woman.
[UK]New Sprees of London 35: The well known Mother Jones continues her business as usual in Lombard-court [...] The ken is tidy, notwithstanding it is a nuisance to the neighbourhood.
[UK]J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 297: The ‘wrens’ take it in turns to do the marketing and keep house while their sisters are abroad ‘on business’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Sept. 14/2: Re the lydies who ‘travel’ their charms [...] almost the only ‘business’ done, outside the Westralian goldfields, is – barring Japs – by women who ‘go on circuit.’.
[US]J. Washburn Und. Sewer 28: One of the most profitable grafts was the money they drew from the unfortunate women of the city. During the twelve years I was in ‘business’ there I paid a monthly fine.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 7 Sept. 12/4: There you see them out on ‘business,’ / They are old before they're young— / [...] / Some are twelve, or barely sixteen.
[UK]C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice 20: If you’re in business full-time, and your landlord’s not ignorant, you don’t get a gaff for less.
[UK]A. Bennett God the Stonebreaker 177: He often escorts white women. There he is with another low-type bird, maybe she’s in the ‘business’.
[US]E. Torres After Hours 96: I’m gettin’ out of the business.

(d) (US) a woman, usu. deemed promiscuous.

[US]C. McKay Home to Harlem 17: She’s a particularly sweet piece a business.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 37/2: Business, the. [...] 4. [...] a morally loose woman.

(e) (orig. US) the male or female genitals.

C. Fletcher ‘Dresser With the Drawers’ 🎵 The end of your tongue, mama, just as sweet as a plum / And the way you use your business will make any man go wrong.
[US]K. Arnold ‘Sissy Man Blues’ 🎵 Said I woke up this morning with my pork-grinding business in my hand / Lord if you can’t send me no woman, please send me some sissy man.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS 79/1: business, the [...] The penis, the vagina.
E. Leonard Moonshine War 132: ‘What you do, you take his pants down and hold a razor over his business’.
[US]E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 436: ’Member when I made her let you have a feel of her business?
[US](con. 1930s) C.E. Lincoln The Avenue, Clayton City (1996) 150: Joe Poole look at Vernon’s private parts an’ [...] [h]e poke Vernon’s business with his rifle barrel.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] Les [...] got stuck into Stepha’s business again.
[UK]N. Blincoe ‘Ardwick Green’ in Champion Disco Biscuits (1997) 10: Standing there, unzipped, his business in his hand.
[US]J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 84: ‘I got some business, baby. I can shoot Ping-Pong balls out of it’.

(f) (US black) a man.

[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 18 Jan. 20: What NAACP femme goes into a trance every time that ‘business’ comes by the office?

(g) the fly buttons or zip.

[US] in G. Legman Rationale of the Dirty Joke (1972) I 301: Mister, your . . . er . . . business is open.

(h) (US Und.) an effeminate/passive male homosexual.

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 37/2: Business, the. [...] 4. A passive pederast.

2. a euph. term for faeces or urine.

[UK]D. Lupton London and the Countrey Carbonadoed 94: The Goldfinders hold the sense of smelling the least of vse, and do not much care for touching the businesse they haue in hand.
[UK]Le Strange Merry Passages and Jeasts No. 316 92: King James being a hunting one time, and loth to light for the matter, shitte in his Breeches. [...] the Lord Holdernesse following of him, and smelling the businesse, your Highnesse is much polluted, sayes he.
[UK]C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 95: In building for the Queen a Jakes, / But never think’st [...] What will become of thine own Business.
[UK] ‘Chapter of T--d’s’ Comic Songster and Gentleman’s Private Cabinet 43: This world’s but a dunyken – mankind are only t--ds! / For let folks be in any life [...] They find it necessary to get their business done!
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations . . . 383: The beer ran out and I had to take a shit [...] I finished my business and walked back in.
[US]H. Harrison Bill [...] on the Planet of Robot Slaves (1991) 27: ‘Ahh gotta go to the toilet,’ he whimpered. ‘Your business after my business – and my business is a cold beer.’.
L. Inglis on Twitter 16 Mar. 🌐 Horses and donks rarely make business in a house, amazingly.

3. a (difficult) situation; usu. defined by an adj., e.g. pretty business.

[UK] ‘Thursday’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 184: And One makes nine Speeches while the Business was hot.
[UK]Behn False Count II ii: A proud ungracious Flurt, – a Lord with a Pox, here’s fine business i’faith.
[UK]Cibber Double Gallant IV i: Soh, this is like to be a very pretty Buisiness!
[Ire]K. O’Hara Tom Thumb I ii: The bloody business of grim war is o’er.
R.B. Peake Bottle Imp I vi: Here’s a pretty business! how’s it all to be paid for?
I. Pocock Omnibus I i: Here’s a pretty business!
[US]R.M. Bird Nick of the Woods II 37: Truly this is a pretty piece of business for thee, Nathan Slaughter!
[US]W.T. Thompson Chronicles of Pineville 108: Well, now! [...] you is done it! – here’s a business!
[US] ‘The Blacksmith of the Mountain Pass’ in T.A. Burke Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 86: ‘Well,’ thought Ned, ‘this is a nice business!’.
[UK]J.S. Coyne Pippins and Pies 124: Here’s a pretty business.
[UK]E.B. Christy Box and Cox in Darkey Drama 6 9: Nice business, dis ’ere.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 12/1: ‘The hand of Providence is clearly shown in this Soudan business,’ said the ‘slack’ limb-maker, as he ordered in an extra thousand feet of timber, and started to cut out wooden legs.
[UK]A. Bennett Grand Babylon Hotel 57: We’re in the middle of a rather queer business.
[US]G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 234: Oh, the noose business?

4. (UK Und.) criminal activity.

[[UK]Rowlands Night Raven 3: Let’s break in heere [...] Break out the iron bars For too long lingering all our business marrs].
[[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 23 Feb. 90/1: My Lads, says he, what Lay do you go upon. They told me they could find no better Business than stealing Lead].
[UK]W.N. Glascock Land Sharks and Sea Gulls II 111: I’m as good a cracksman as the best o’ ye. I’ve done a bit o’ bisness in my time.
Lloyd’s Companion 26 Sept. 1/1: ‘We’ve jist got a leetle bisness on hand’ [...] ‘I perceive your are smugglers and about to run a cargo’.
[UK]W. Phillips Wild Tribes of London 89: It is a purse, a bulky one – and we were right in saying that little thieving Jack had been doing business to-day.
[UK]Belfast Morn. News 25 July 3/2: The Swell Mob in Belfast — some of these gentry did a tolerable business during the show.
[Aus]S. James Vagabond Papers (3rd series) 136: You have to go into general business. You must be a magsman, a pincher, a picker-up, a flatcatcher, a bester.
Vicksburg Herald (MS) 20 Dec. 4/1: A Slick Duck [...] Wm. Nelson, a slick colored barber [...] is decsribed as an old bird at the [crime] business and a slick artist in his line.
[US]‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer, Detective Ch. IV: We was ready for business now.
[US]J. Flynt World of Graft 172: If ‘business’ is brisk, and there is a good deal ‘doing,’ the public is naturally mulcted much more than during lean years.
[UK]Marvel 21 Apr. 352: Done a bit o’ business inside, too.
[US]H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 319: Girls who knew the business and were as wise as any guy that ever done his bit.
[US]D. Lowrie My Life in Prison 56: He used t’ be th’ best confidence man in th’ business.
[Aus]New Call (Perth, WA) 31 Mar. 12/1: [T]hieves and robbers conduct their ‘businesses’ with flagrant disregard for the law.
[UK]V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 45: The invention [...] threatened to curtail a lot of ‘business’ for the forgery men.
[US]R. Prather Scrambled Yeggs 73: You nose it around you want to do business and you can do business all right. And there’s been business done.
[UK]D. Powis Signs of Crime 176: Business with, do Has the innocent meaning but also means to have corrupt transactions with.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 194: Coach, you don’t think there’s even a remote chance an official would do some business?
[US]D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 118: Mainly here for ‘business’ (drugs).
[UK]J. Cameron It Was An Accident 8: You did the piece of work together on that last business.
[US]F.X. Toole Rope Burns 15: I never bet on a fight I’m working [...] This way, if I somehow screw up and cause my boy to lose, it can never be said that I did business.

5. usu. constr. with the, the best, the peak of excellence; often found as do the business

[UK]H. Smart Breezie Langton I 146: The Novice had been backed for a good bit of money [...] though the rider didn't look quite like business.
[UK] ‘’Arry at the Gaiety’ Punch 5 July 309/1: Then there’s Warner in Drink, now, that’s business [...] / I shall never forget that D.T.
[US]H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 258: ‘That’s the business!’ I hear Nate howl as Kid Christopher crashes to the canvas.
[US]I. Wolfert Tucker’s People (1944) 315: You suddenly realise she’s socking it in, giving the business.
[US]‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 82: I had pretty well cut my teeth on bank heisting in the Pueblo and the Rose City Bank jobs. But it was Al Sutton who really showed me the business. I picked up a pretty good knack for it from Al.
[US]W. Brown Girls on the Rampage 35: It’s a real snazzy dive [...] rugs, screens, vases. Really the business.
[UK]T. Lewis Billy Rags [ebook] I look the business when I shape up, hard eyes and everything, it’s one of my best effects.
[Ire](con. 1970) G. Moxley Danti-Dan in McGuinness Dazzling Dark I iv: Oh, that’s the fucking business.
[Ire]P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 234: Wait’ll you see the apartment [...] It’s the fooken business.
[UK]J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 127: This macaroni cheese really is — the business.

6. constr. with the, cheating, fraud, deception.

[US]G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 187: We went through the old business about the same as if the old pair of eyes was not in the same car, only we talked low, and [...] no one could hear what was going on.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 49: Barney Winch would never give the business to a friend. If the business was slang, it was highly literal slang, for it meant to Barney exactly what it had meant to Webster, that which busies or engages one’s time, attention or labour.

7. a matter in which one may interfere; thus mind one’s own business, to keep out of other people’s affairs.

[[UK]H. Fielding Elizabeth Canning (2 edn) 43: What is that to you, you have no business with it?].
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 10 Nov. 82: If they knew their business they would never have let us land here.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Nov. 14/3: ‘Halt! Who goes there?’ ‘Grenadier Guards,’ answered a respectful voice. ‘Pass on, Grenadier Guards.’ [...] ‘Halt! Who goes there,’ exclaimed the Chief. ‘Mind your own — business!’ came the reply. ‘Pass on, Australians,’ ordered the Chief.
[US]M. West Sex (1997) Act II: Now don’t give me that business.
[US]W.R. Burnett Iron Man 287: Regan was bossy and pig-headed and hard to get along with [...] but he knew his business, and if anybody tried to tell him what to do he shut them up.
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 105: The knives [...] are sharp and pointed [...] and fully capable of doing your business.
[US]N. Mailer Naked and Dead 253: The business with Lois was dead.
[US]N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 198: Of course, if that’s how you expect your broads to do time that’s your business.
[US]H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 192: You got business with me so’s you have to hear? This, of course, is the carnie word for: Mind your own!
[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 1: When you’re eight years old, nothing is any of your business.
[UK]‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 145: You and me’s got more business.
[US]G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 93: That’s none of your business [...] That’s none of your fuckin’ goddamned business whatsoever at all.
D.H. Edwards The World Don’t Owe Me Nothing 158: [H]e found out I was going with her. In a small town like that, everybody telling your business .
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad 164: Shake your business up and pour it Say what’s on your mind.
[US]Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 in someone’s business Definition: to be nosey. Example: Yo Mom’s in my business.
[US]W.D. Myers Lockdown 120: ‘Now why would she get on television and lay out her business like that?’ Mr. Wilson asked.

8. (US) as verbal aggression.

(a) (also biz, bizz) intense interrogation, ‘the third degree’.

[US]D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 99/2: The biz, bizz, or business. […] 4. The ‘third degree’ administered by the police.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]M. McAlary Good Cop Bad Cop 34: They screamed at him, jokingly: Who do you think you fucking are, kid? [...] They gave him the business.

(b) complaints, verbal criticism.

[US]W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 133: Randy and I’ve been getting the business down at Headquarters.
[US]H.S. Thompson letter 23 Aug. Proud Highway (1997) 391: But, man, you start criticizing Brazil’s slothful reaction to the Alliance, and both of them will give you the same business.
[UK]R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 5: You were giving me the needle, The business.
[US]J. Bouton Ball Four 318: [A]n old, fat guy with two missing front teeth was giving us the business from the stands.

9. equipment.

(a) (drugs) the equipment used to take opium and, latterly, heroin [? play on works n. (4a)].

[US]B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago 197: Business. The entire paraphernalia used for smoking or taking drugs hypodermically.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]Lannoy & Masterson ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ AS XXVII:1 24: BUSINESS, n. Hypo device [LAPD].
[US]J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US]E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
[UK]S. McConville ‘Prison Lang.’ in Michaels & Ricks (1980) 526: The hypodermic is known as a [...] business.

(b) (US prison) constr. with the, a weapon.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 1/1: A business, a pistol.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 37/2: Business, the. [...] 3. A pistol, revolver, knife, or any deadly weapon.
[US]Jenkins & Shrake Limo 108: Cooper’s Binniss, the .32 snubnose Smith & Wesson, was half buried in Dutch’s navel.
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Business, the. A gun.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 34/2: business, the n. 1 a firearm.

(c) an unspecified mechanical/material object; some form of adornment.

[US]R. Starnes And When She Was Bad 125: Polly was wearing a sweater and skirt business [ibid.] 194: She was wearing a champagne colored dress with a business in back. Very good it looked.
[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 1: Aunt Mema’s Private Business, the portable bidet.

10. a murder, an assassination; occas. as get the business.

[US](con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 153: According to all the [...] stories of hoodlums breaking away from the mob, he invariably gets the ‘business’ if he quits.

11. (N.Z. prison) drugs.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 34/2: business, the n. 2 drugs.

In compounds

business end, the (n.) (also business side) [i.e. the end , occas. side, that ‘does the business’]

1. that part (practical or metaphorical) that really matters; thus (US) the business end of a tin tack, the point.

[US]Emporia News (KS) 24 Sept. 4/3: Mrs Forster would have done better to have [...] proceeded to beat some sense into his sconce with the business side of a wash-board.
[US]St Paul Globe (MN) 31 July 4/2: There is nothing half so full of pure cussedness [...] as the business end of a wasp.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 13/4: The collector of this deserving charity will be so good as to call at The Bulletin office, where a pound awaits him – a pound of lead at the business end of a shtick.
Junction City Wkly Union (KS) 16 Apr. 3/3: Don’t fool around with the business end of a rusty shotgun.
[UK]Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/3: His Optics Glimmered on an Old and Mossgrown Horse, who was Filling himself Up on the Wisp, or business end of a Broom.
[US]Ranch & Range (N. Yakima, WA) 29 Apr. 14/2: [advert] The Business End of Business — That’s What We Teach!
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Feb. 24/4: On ‘form’ he is still apparently superior to young Dawson, who met him on level terms last year and was altogether outplayed at the business end of the match.
[US]Carrizozo News (NM) 4 June 7/1: Jim Woodland is taking a rest [...] from the effects of stepping on the business end of a tenpenny nail.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Aug. 15/4: It varies in length from one to three feet, and is armed with a pair of nippers similar to those which adorn the business end of a centipede.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 318: That’s an almanac picture for you. [...] Old lardyface standing up to the business end of a gun.
[UK]Auden & Isherwood Ascent of F6 I ii: He’s a man and he expects to be ruled by men. He understands strength and he respects it. He despises weakness and he takes advantage of it. Show him the business end of a machine-gun and he —.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 77: He still looked like the business end of a fugitive warrant to Frankie.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 69: Even when he was looking down the business end of a triggerboy’s .38.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
L. Watson Supernature 102: There is even an example of convergent evolution at a molecular level in two enzymes [...] which have exactly the same patterns of amino acids at the ‘business ends’.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 3: The business end of a dozen felony warrants.
[US]E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 1: She placed the business end of the item under my tongue.
[Aus]L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] I was glad I was down at the feet and not up at the business end [i.e the genitals].
[US]S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 255: Beauregard wheeled around with the .45. He panned across the room with the business end.

2. the anus.

[US]J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 13: You let off one of them whistlers from your business end near a methane pocket an we’ll all be playing in the harp section.

3. the vagina.

[US]‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 14: I’ve [...] seen many things, but nothing beats the business end of a woman.
business girl (n.) (also business woman)

a prostitute.

[US]C. McKay Home to Harlem 61: In her salad days as a business girl her purse was controlled by many a black man.
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 156: ‘I guess that’s why I’m a business woman.’ ‘You like it?’ he asked. ‘Or the money?’.
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 80: Velma’s a bizness girl. Yuh ain’t got nuffink agin bizness girls ’ave yuh?
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 204: Being entertained by a brace of business girls.
[UK]D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 19: This girl was a business girl.

In phrases

beyond one’s business

(US black) acting arrogantly, putting on airs.

[US]J. Harrison ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 264: To git bcyant yo’ biznis = to bo above yourself.
do a bit of business (v.)

1. to have sexual intercourse; often in the context of prostitution.

[UK]Yokel’s Preceptor 8: Mary Mitchell, the Black Mot [...] used to pad the Haymarket. She did a vast deal of business; but being too fond of the tape she oftened figured before the beak.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]D. Goines Street Players 129: Why don’t you park and do some business, honey?

2. to commit a crime.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Dec. 35/4: [...] know that ’im an’ ‘Spotty’ Pink did a bit of business at ole man Vile’s jest afore the pair of ’em got jugged.
do business (v.)

1. to have intercourse with a prostitute.

[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 22: Avoir commerce = to copulate; ‘to do business’.
[US]D.M. Garrison ‘Song of the Pipeline’ in Botkin Folk-Say 107: Angel she comes up to me and sez ‘Want to dance, sweet thing?’ ‘Naw,’ sez I, ‘but you and I can have a little of each other’s business.’.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 165: You studs want to do some business?

2. (US und.) to act in a criminal or fraudulent manner.

[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Sept. 11/4: [He] was thoroughly justified in believing that a man who admitted ‘doing business’ once would ‘do business’ again.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 234: Shake had uncovered no evidence that anyone on Charlie’s crew was guilty of ‘doing business.’ [...] The fact that Shake had no proof of wrongdoing on the part of crew members didn’t get them off the hook.

3. to purchase drugs.

[UK]J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 61: Nicky I’m a busy man [...] You want to do business, you know where to get me.
do one’s business (v.) (also do one’s things)

a euph. meaning to go to the lavatory, esp. used to children.

[UK]P. Holland (trans.) Suetonius’s Historie of Twelve Caesars (1899) II 220: [He had] a countenance as if he streined hard for a stoole. Whereupon one of these plaisants came out with a pretie conceit. For when Vespasian seemed to request the fellow for to breake a jest upon him also, as well as upon others, ‘that I will,’ quoth he, ‘If you had done your businesse once upon the seege’.
[UK]Sacr. Decretal 3: Have a [...] care [...] that [...] no birds build, chatter, or do their businesse, or sing there [OED].
[[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 163: Nature’s business was henceforth conducted with a despatch entirely antipathetic to its proper aesthetics].
[UK]Partridge DSUE (1984) 318/1: from ca. 1850.
[UK]P. Larkin ‘The Literary World’ in Coll. Poems (1988) 38: Mister Alfred Tennyson sat like a baby / Doing his poetic business.
[US]J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 165: These ould bastards who come in at night full of red biddy and do their business all over the floors.
[US]J. Thompson Pop. 1280 in Four Novels (1983) 374: The only view they get is of some fella doing his business.
[Aus]W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 52: It might seem strange that we let them do their business on the floors.
[US](con. 1920s) in J. Curry River’s in My Blood (1983) 166: He had two daggone kittens [...] And you know there was only one place they could do their business—that’s in the pilot’s toilet.
[UK]T. Rhone School’s Out I iii: I will have to start doing my things at my yard.
[US]J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 205: Denny and Kevin do their business, they’re zipping up to get back in the car when this cop pulls right up behind.
[UK]J. Sullivan ‘A Slow Bus to Chingford’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Don’t forget to take Nero out so he can do his business, alright?
[US](con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 148: Those animals ripped me up and did their business in my mouth.
[US](con. 1969) N.L. Russell Suicide Charlie 116: Just about midnight, I felt an overwhelming need to pee and hopped out of the pit and sauntered over to a more private spot, there to do my business.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 14 July 8: Susie does her business in the gutter, not on the pavement.
[Aus](con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 116: We were stuck in those shitty trenches – and I mean shitty [...] Blokes were doing their business right there in the trench.
[US]J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 15: You don’t always have time to pull over and find somewhere convenient to do your business.
do someone’s business (v.)

1. to ruin.

[UK]Farquhar Sir Harry Wildair IV ii: ’Tis a weak-headed Coxcomb! two or three Bumpers did his Business.
[UK]J. Townley High Life Below Stairs II i: I’ll do his business for him, when his Honour comes to Town.

2. to beat, to kill.

T. Beck in Ordinary’s Acct n.p.: I tore her Gown all to Pieces, and if some People had not come to her Assistance, I believe I should have done her Business.
[UK]Smollett Roderick Random (1979) 28: You shall pay for this, you dog, you shall. – I’ll do your business.
[UK]Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 269: He concluded he had pretty well done their business, for both of them, as they ran off, cried out with bitter oaths, that they were dead men.
[US]‘Geoffrey Crayon’ Tales of a Traveller (1850) 424: The red-cap cocked his pistol and fired. [...] ‘I’ve done his business,’ said the red-cap to one or two of his comrades as they arrived panting. ‘He’ll tell no tales, except to the fishes in the river.’.
[UK]‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life I 121: Mrs. Green seized me by the hair of my head, and took a hoath as she’d do my business the first opportunity.
[UK]J. Greenwood Odd People in Odd Places 7: ‘They said it was his hurts as killed him,’ said the old lady [...] ‘It was the bricks and mortar that did his business, poor chap.’.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
do the business (v.) (also do the biz, …bizniz)

1. to act in the manner required.

[UK]Dekker Belman of London F4: The tooles that doe the businesse are called Wresters.
[UK]Farquhar Love and a Bottle II ii: The moving a man’s Limbs pliantly does the business.
Farquhar Beaux’ Stratagem V iii: ’Sdeath, I’m glad on’t; this wound will do the business. I’ll amuse the old lady and Mrs Sullen about dressing my wound, while you carry off Dorinda.
[UK]C. Coffey Devil to Pay III iii: A Tweak or two by the Nose, and half a Dozen Straps did the Business at last.
[UK]Foote Devil Upon Two Sticks in Works (1799) II 264: It [i.e. bleeding] did the business [...] I compassed the job.
[Ind]Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 24 Nov.-1 Dec. n.p.: It is the Verdict that does the Business, but it is the Evidence [...] that governs the Verdict.
[Ire]T.C. Croker Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1862) 205: The brandy got into it and did his business for him.
T. Flint George Mason 81: An answer so proper produced an instant impression. It did the business for George. It aroused attention, and created instant sympathy.
[UK]J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 157: Off with your shakers, and toss on mine—half a minute will do the business.
[US]J.F. Brobst letter in Brobst Well Mary, Civil War Letters 149: We do the business up in regular style.
[US]‘Bill Nye’ Bill Nye and Boomerang 110: [She] whispered a few low musical words in his ear. That did the business.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 20 July 3/2: He is a sound bird and [...] he does the big biz.
[US]J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 369: We was so bughouse we cal’lated they oughter do the biz.
[US]‘Old Sleuth’ Dock Rats of N.Y. (2006) 17: ‘How was it the boys chanced to “drop” to him?’ ‘Renie did the business.’ ‘Renie did the business?’ ejaculated the man. ‘Yes, sir; she went through him.’.
[US]F. Dumont Darkey Dialect Discourses 11: A few kisses does de bizness and foolish man coughs up.
[US](con. 1880–1924) F.J. Wilstach Anecdota erótica 16: A man’s wife was in Atlantic City. Friend at the house was told that she had a womb protector that did the business.
[US]E. Hemingway letter 2 Jan. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 188: Forwarded that letter to Clarke day it came. Hope it does the business.
[UK]R. Hewitt White Talk Black Talk 22: Derek and Martin would do the business with all the George lot.
[UK](con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 47: If you were going to survive you had to prove that you could do the business.
[UK]M. Amis London Fields 209: He’ll do the necessary. Keith’ll do the biz.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 78: I’m on these benzedrines. They’ll do the biz.
[UK]Indep. on Sun. Rev. 1 Aug. 45: Strangely, it does the business.
[UK]J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 117: ‘Listen, if you need geezers who can do the business, you know — ’ he makes a gun shape ‘— we can sort that as well.’.
[NZ]A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 69: Bust anyone’s head. Do the hurt bizniz on anyone.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] ‘We just run in. Do the biz. And run out again. Easy’.

2. to hang, to murder, to kill.

[UK]G. Smeeton Doings in London 157: I did the business for Mester Fontilry (Fauntleroy) in style [...] I tucked up Thistlewood, and all them chaps.
[US]W.G. Simms Border Beagles (1855) 300: Dang my buttons, I’m almost ashamed I didn’t borrow a pen-knife to do the business.
[UK]Thackeray Pendennis I 107: Then he took down his venerable and murderous duelling-pistols, with fine flint locks, that had done the business of many a pretty fellow in Dublin.
[UK]C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend I 316: She was stronger than he was for a minute or two, and that moment would have done his business. She meant killing.
[US]F. Remington letter in Splete (1988) 20: You would stick by your old desk until some disease had done the ‘biz’ for you.
[US]C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 85: We concocted a scheme to steal that schooner and kill the owner, captain and crew [...] The two of us got all ready to do the business.

3. to have sexual intercourse, irrespective of sexuality.

[UK]Wandring Whore I 4: For such as fear the french Pox or perilous infirmity of burning, I advise not to do the business without spunges.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 100: His whoring sconce / Can only trim us one at once; / So whilst one gets her bus’ness done, / The other will have time to run.
[UK]‘The Knocking Tinker’ in Flare-Up Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 288: A jolly tinker undertook, / And promised her most fairly, / [...] / To do her business rarely.
[US]F. Swados House of Fury (1959) 94: Most every night they would wake us up doin’ their business. I could hear them roll over; the springs would squeak.
[Ire]R. Doyle Commitments 38: At least we know tha’ Imelda does the business.
[Ire]R. Doyle Snapper 171: The one abou’ doin’ the business, yeh know. — Sex?
[UK]D. Jarman diary 26 June Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 155: We did the business.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 108: I got her three sheets and did the business with her.
[NZ]A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 71: You do your bizniz with your girlfriend during recreation times, in your cell or his.
[Aus]C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘Sometimes, when we was in our cups, we’d talk about it, doing the business. He had some good stories, I can tell you. But they were all about sheilas’.
get up in someone’s business (v.)

(US) to interfere in someone’s privacy.

[US]J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 73: I ain’t lookin’ to get up in your business or nothin’, but what kind of name is Lerner?
[US]P. Beatty Sellout (2016) 230: These days mainstream America’s nose is all up in our business.
give someone the business (v.) (orig. US)

1. to kill.

[[US]J.K. Paulding John Bull in America 295: The two young banditti had taken down their rifles, and while loading them the following dialogue passed between them in whispers – ‘D--n him but I’ll do his business; I’ll give him his bitters’].
[US]C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘If you’re lying I’ll give you the business pronto’’.
[US]D. Runyon ‘What, No Butler?’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 388: If some doll does give Mr. Justin Veezee the business, it is only retribution.
[US]N. Davis ‘You’ll Die Laughing’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 246: I figure they was havin’ a party and he gave her the business.
[US]R. Chandler High Window 151: He drags Phillips into the bathroom and gives him the business with his own gun.
[US](con. 1920s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 220: We didn’t hear no shot. Did you give him the business, Noodles?

2. to beat up, to assault.

[US]N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 258: The B. and I. gave me the business [...] the things a bunch of tough coppers can do to a guy who won’t talk makes me shaky when I remember it.
[US]Mad mag. Nov. 38: Dere’s a coupl a’ guys [...] waitin’ t’ gimme d’ business.
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[UK]F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 133: Why would I wanna send someone around to give yuh the business?
E. Kurtz ‘In the Neighborhood’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] The other guys [...] had been giving him the business for a while.

3. to have sexual intercourse with.

[US]A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 37: He liked to give them the business in full daylight.

4. to tease, to taunt, to put at a disadvantage by one’s own actions.

[US]M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 70: She gives him the business. Lenny, he likes the treatment so he keeps her around.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 194: I thought he was givin’ me the business.
[US](con. 1949) J.G. Dunne True Confessions (1979) 236: Giving Sonny the business is what he means, Desmond Spellacy thought. First the stick, now the carrot.

5. to deceive, to bamboozle; to flatter.

[US]D. Runyon ‘Broadway Financier’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 206: Doc Daro is always telling Silk what rascals guys are and explaining to her the different kinds of business they will try to give her.
[US]Reading (PA) Eagle 20 Mar. 7/3: Joe College says [...] ‘don’t give me the business’ to someone who he thinks is giving him a line.
[US]B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 55: Sammy started giving her the business about putting her in the movies.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 285: Don’t try giving me the business.
[US]‘Monroe Fry’ Sex, Vice & Business 52: Usually, after sparring a bit, he gives us what he thinks is the business—how pretty we are, what a beautiful dancer, what a build.
[US](con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 285: I give this guy the business and find out about the girl.

6. to interrogate.

[US] in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 115: He starts giving him the real business. Third degreeing him.

7. to cast flirtatious glances at.

[US]Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 159: I was standing in this Tornado Bar [...] when she whisked in and started giving me the business.

8. to frustrate sexually.

[US]L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 141: She’s giving him the business.

9. to brag to, to boast to.

[US]‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 207: Me and Pat listened for a while to this kid giving us the business about all the places he had been and the things he done, so at last we figured it was about time to take care of him.
have the business (v.)

(orig. US black) to be in a position to disparage.

[US]Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 20: Willie Mae Clark gave him a certain look and asked him, ‘What’s dat got to do with you, George Brown?’ And he shut up. Everybody knows that Willie Mae’s got the business with George Brown.
look like business (v.)

(US) of a person or situation, to look serious or threatening.

[US]W.H. Thomes Bushrangers 117: ‘This,’ he said, ‘looks like business. Here we are once more on the war path, and may luck favor us.’.
[US]C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 98: He looked like business, all right, and so did his porter, who came on the scene just then with a mallet.
[Ire]S. O’Casey Plough and the Stars Act II: ‘Damn it,’ says I to meself, ‘this looks like business!’.
none of ones B.I. business [re-emphasis of business, pron. ‘biznis’]

(US black) phr. of dismissal, i.e. ‘none of one business’.

[US]W.D. Myers The Young Landlords 26: I told Gloria to mind her B-I business .
[US]W.D. Myers Motown and Didi 59: ‘How you get in that building over there [...] ?’ Motown asked. ‘None of your B.I. business!’ .
open one’s business (v.)

of a woman, to make oneself available for sexual intercourse.

[UK]Swift letter v 4 Oct. in Journal to Stella (1901) 27: Mr. Harley [...] has appointed me an hour on Saturday at four, afternoon, when I will open my business with him; which expression I should not use if I were a woman.
talk business (v.)

1. (US Und.) to offer a bribe to the police or other officials in the hope of securing immunity or leniency.

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 219/2: Talk business. 1. To offer a bribe to arresting officers or other officials; to offer to barter information against the underworld for leniency or immunity.

2. (US black) to seduce, to charm.

[US]W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XVI n.p.: Gum Drop: Your tanglefoot has got my game, I’m stuck so tight you cannot shake your catch [...] So wont you join me in a tie-up match? If you’ll talk business, I’m your lemon pie.
[[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Dec. 27/2: Sometimes he thought that she snubbed him. [...] She did that when some friend’s comment reached her ear, or when she gave up hope of ever hearing Henry talk business].
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 257: talk (one’s) business 1. Talk with intelligence, force, and knowledge. 2.Talk seductively to a member of the opposite sex.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

have business on both sides of the way (v.) (also ...both sides of the street) [the drunkard meanders from side to side of a street]

to be drunk.

[UK]Gent.’s Mag. 559: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, [...] It is also said that he has [...] 48. Business on both sides of the way.
[Ire]Spirit of Irish Wit 21: No woman is to be admitted in half mourning, or those that have business on both sides of the street.