English

Alternative forms

• busy body

Noun

busybody ‎(plural busybodies)

1. Someone who interferes with others; one who is nosy, intrusive or meddlesome.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, Bible (Tyndale): 1 Peter, iv, 15,

     Se that none of you suffre as a murtherer or as a thefe or an evyll doar or as a busybody in other mens matters.

   • 1852, Charlotte Bronte, Villette,

     Candidly speaking, I thought her a little busybody; but her father, blind like other parents, seemed perfectly content to let her wait on him, and even wonderfully soothed by her offices.

   • 1915, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island,

     But I couldn't—and I can't tell you, either, what it's meant to me these two years to believe you were going to marry him, and be told every week by some busybody that your engagement was on the point of being announced.

Synonyms

• (one who interferes or is nosy or intrusive): marplot, meddler, kibitzer, nosy parker

Translations