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, n. Act or business of spying. [R.]

ne who prepares a play for production. He arranges the details of the stage settings, the business to be used, all stage effects, and instructs the actors, excepting usually the star, in the general interpretation of their parts.

The business of running stagecoaches; also, the act of journeying in stagecoaches.

Not active or brisk; dull; as, business in stagnant. That gloomy slumber of the stagnant soul. Johnson. For him a stagnant life was not worth living. Palfrey.

To cease to be brisk or active; to become dull or inactive; as, commerce stagnates; business stagnates. Ready-witted tenderness . . . never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope. Sir W. Scott.

e cessation of action, or of brisk action; the state of being dull; as, the stagnation of business.

The situation of a shop, store, hotel, etc.; as, a good, bad, or convenient stand for business. [U. S.]

To set out; to commence a course, as a race or journey; to begin; as, to start business. At once they start, advancing in a line. Dryden. At intervals some bird from out the brakes Starts into voice a moment, then is still. Byron.

Recurring at regular time; not occasional; as, stated preaching; stated business hours.

To hinde Your ships are stayed at Venice. Shak. This business staid me in London almost a week. Evelyn. I was willing to stay my reader on an argument that appeared to me new. Locke.

The occupation or business of running a steamboat, or of transporting merchandise, passengers, etc., by steamboats.

Putting in motion, or being in motion; active; active in business; habitually employed in some kind of business; accustomed to a busy life. A more stirring and intellectual age than any which had gone before it. Southey.

Money or capital which an individual or a firm employs in business; fund; in the United States, the capital of a bank or other company, in the form of transferable shares, each of a certain amount; money funded in government securities, called also the public funds; in the plural, property consisting of shares in joint…

The act or art of dealing in stocks; the business of a stockjobber.

blic highway; now commonly, a thoroughfare in a city or village, bordered by dwellings or business houses. He removed [the body of] Amasa from the street unto the field. Coverdale. At home or through the high street passing. Milton.

so, something done or accomplished by such an effort; as, a stroke of genius; a stroke of business; a master stroke of policy.

A person employed by an agent to transact the whole, or a part, of the business intrusted to the latter. Bouvier. Chitty.

To be injured; to sustain loss or damage. Public business suffers by private infirmities. Sir W. Temple.

The state of being superannuated, or too old for office or business; the state of being disqualified by old age; decrepitude. The world itself is in a state of superannuation. Cowper. Slyness blinking through the watery eye of superannuation. Coleridge.

Liable to suspicion; suspicious. [Obs.] It is a very suspicable business. Dr. H. more.