Business.
Synonyms:
| affair, | commerce, | handicraft, | trading, |
| art, | concern, | job, | traffic, |
| avocation, | craft, | occupation, | transaction, |
| barter, | duty, | profession, | vocation, |
| calling, | employment, | trade, | work. |
A business is what one follows regularly; an occupation is what he happens at any time to be engaged in; trout-fishing may be one's occupation for a time, as a relief from business; business is ordinarily for profit, while the occupation may be a matter of learning, philanthropy, or religion. A profession implies scholarship; as, the learned professions. Pursuit is an occupation which one follows with ardor. An avocation is what calls one away from other work; a vocation or calling, that to which one is called by some special fitness or sense of duty; thus, we speak of the gospel ministry as a vocation or calling, rather than a business. Trade or trading is, in general, the exchanging of one thing for another; in the special sense, a trade is an occupation involving manual training and skilled labor; as, the ancient Jews held that every boy should learn a trade. A transaction is a single action, whether in business, diplomacy, or otherwise; affair has a similar, but lighter meaning; as, this little affair; an important transaction. The plural affairs has a distinctive meaning, including all activities where men deal with one another on any considerable scale; as, a man of affairs. A job is a piece of work viewed as a single undertaking, and ordinarily paid for as such. Trade and commerce may be used as equivalents, but trade is capable of a more limited application; we speak of the trade of a village, the commerce of a nation. Barter is the direct exchange of commodities; business, trade, and commerce are chiefly transacted by means of money, bills of exchange, etc. Business, occupation, etc., may be what one does independently; employment may be in the service of another. Work is any application of energy to secure a result, or the result thus secured; thus, we speak of the work of God. Art in the industrial sense is a system of rules and accepted methods for the accomplishment of some practical result; as, the art of printing; collectively, the arts. A craft is some occupation requiring technical skill or manual dexterity, or the persons, collectively, engaged in its exercise; as, the weaver's craft.
Prepositions:
The business of a druggist; in business with his father; doing business for his father; have you business with me? business in New York; business about, concerning, or in regard to certain property.