Noun

(countable) A specific commercial enterprise or establishment.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=68, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= T time , passage=The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them, which is then licensed to related businesses in high-tax countries, is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies.}}

(countable) A person's occupation, work, or trade.

(uncountable) Commercial, industrial, or professional activity.

(uncountable) The volume or amount of commercial trade.

* {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place

, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business , but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.}}

(uncountable) One's dealings; patronage.

(uncountable) Private commercial interests taken collectively.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist), author=Schumpeter

, title= Cronies and capitols , passage=Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.}}

(uncountable) The management of commercial enterprises, or the study of such management.

(countable) A particular situation or activity.

(countable) An objective or a matter needing to be dealt with.

*

(uncountable) Something involving one personally.

(uncountable, parliamentary procedure) Matters that come before a body for deliberation or action.

(travel, uncountable) Business class, the class of seating provided by airlines between first class and coach.

* {{quote-book, 1992, James Wallace and Jim Erickson, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, page=154 citation

, passage=Gates, who always flew business or coach, didn't particularly like the high air fares Nishi was charging to Microsoft,

(acting) Action carried out with a prop or piece of clothing, usually away from the focus of the scene.

* {{quote-book, 1983, Peter Thomson, Shakespeare's Theatre, page=155 citation

, passage= The business with the hat is a fine example of the difficulty of distinguishing between 'natural' and 'formal' acting.}}

(countable, rare) The collective noun for a group of ferrets.

* {{quote-book, 2004, , The Jaguar Knights: A Chronicle of the King's Blades, page=252 citation

, passage=I'm sure his goons will go through the ship like a business of ferrets, and they'll want to look in our baggage. }}

(uncountable, slang, British) Something very good; top quality. (possibly from "the bee's knees")

(slang, uncountable) Excrement, particularly that of a non-human animal.

Noun

(en noun)

That which is considered to exist as a separate entity, object, quality or concept.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)

, volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […], "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.}}

A word, symbol, sign, or other referent that can be used to refer to any entity.

An individual object or distinct entity.

(informal) Something that is normal or generally recognised.

(legal) Whatever can be owned.

The latest fad or fashion.

(in the plural) Clothes, possessions or equipment.

(informal) A unit or container, usually containing edible goods.

(informal) A problem, dilemma, or complicating factor.

(slang) A penis.

* 1959 , , (Naked Lunch) , 50th anniversary edition (2009), p. 126:

“Oh Gertie it’s true. It’s all true. They’ve got a horrid gash instead of a thrilling thing .”

A living being or creature.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Revenge of the nerds , passage=Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.}}

That which matters; the crux.

* 1914 , Eugene Gladstone O'Neill, The Movie Man] [playscript:

Don’t forget to have Gomez postpone that shooting thing . (in reference to the execution of Fernandez)

(chiefly, historical) A public assembly or judicial council in a Germanic country.

* 1974 , Jón Jóhannesson, A History of the Old Icelandic Commonwealth: Íslendinga Saga , translated by Haraldur Bessason, page 46:

In accordance with Old Germanic custom men came to the thing fully armed, [...]

* 1974', Jakob Benediktsson, ''Landnám og upphaf allsherjarríkis'', in ''Saga Íslands'', quoted in '''1988 by Jesse L. Byock in ''Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 85:

The goðar'' seem both to have received payment of ''thing-fararkaup from those who stayed home and at the same time compensated those who went to the thing , and it cannot be seen whether they had any profit from these transactions.

* 1988 , Jesse L. Byock, Medieval Iceland: Society, Sagas, and Power , page 59:

All Icelandic things were skap-thing , meaning that they were governed by established procedure and met at regular legally designated intevals at predetermined meeting places.