WORD FOR THE DAY

Your word for today is: business end, n.

business end, n.

Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈbɪznᵻs ˌɛnd/,  U.S. /ˈbɪznᵻs ˌɛnd/, /ˈbɪznᵻz ˌɛnd/

Etymology: <  business n. + end n.

orig. U.S.

1.  The end of a city, road, etc., that is given over chiefly to business premises; a main or important business district.

1841  E. R. Steele Summer Journey in West iv. 42 We stopped at a small stage house in the lower and business end of the town.

1853 U.S. Democratic Rev. Sept. 235 We now come to the business end of Broadway, and the word dollars is sure to catch our ears whenever two gentlemen pass us in conversation.

1902  T. L. Cuyler Recoll. Long Life xiii. 171 On a very warm Sabbath evening I went into the business end of London to the ‘Weigh House Chapel’ and heard Dr. Thomas Binney.

2005 Birmingham Post (Nexis) 4 Nov. 1 This was historically the ‘business’ end of the town with its Severn trade, warehouses and boatmen busy with cargoes coming up from Bristol.

 2.  An aspect or facet of an activity that relates to business.

1853  M. S. Hubbell Shady Side xxiii. 158 They relied on him to carry forward the religious end of the enterprise. The business end,—the heavier,—they were willing to carry themselves.

1913 Jrnl. Western Soc. Engineers 18 145 The really successful engineer or architect is more of a business man than the designer; his time is taken up with the business end of the organization, the administration features.

1977  S. Kostof Architect 13 There is no good to assume, as some scholars have done, that one member of the team attended to the artistic end of the project and the other the business end.

2009  C. Wenger Tycoon's Perfect Match vi. 92 Whenever I was around, I gravitated to keeping the books, ordering supplies, running the business end.

3.  An aim or goal that relates to business. Freq. in pl.

1854 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 483 All material, commercial, and business ends would be answered by the treaty.

1867 Watson's Art Jrnl. 7 216/2 An unqualified falsehood, trumped up to serve a questionable business end.

1912 Year Bk. N.Y. Southern Soc. 1912–13 34 The most efficient and effective methods to accomplish, successfully, its business ends

2010  R. F. Lewis in  D. C. Ogden  & J. N. Rosen Fame to Infamy 80 Those parental religious influences enabled Rickey to adopt a moral approach in his public demeanor and use it skilfully to achieve his business ends for most of his career.

 4.  colloq.

a.  The operative or functional end or part of something, esp. a tool or weapon.

1872 Gettysburg(Pa.)Compiler 19 Sept. 1 Two things in the world that are not safe to trifle with: woman's opinion and the business end of a wasp.

1936  ‘R. Crompton’ Sweet William ix. 227 The business end of a geometrical compass was jabbed into Douglas's arm.

1955 Sci. Amer. Sept. 197/1 The business end of the coronagraph is the quartz polarizing monochromator.

1962 Sunday Express 25 Feb. 16/2 The business end of a rifle barrel.

2010  F. Koller Spark ii. 42 The ‘innershield nozzle 6’..sits on the business end of a variety of arc welding guns.

 b.  In extended use: the important, essential, or decisive part of an operation, process, period of time, etc.

1890 Daily Inter Ocean(Chicago) 11 Oct. 4/4 After disposing of the resolutions, which were the ‘business end’ of the report of the Walker committee, the board returned to the consideration of the report proper.

1900 Chicago Tribune 12 Oct. 4/3 At the business end of the race May was leading her field the same way the caboose leads a freight train.

1969 Washington Post 12 Jan. c11/2 There is also a Ski-Doo, a Ski-Daddler and even a Diable Rouge—and they are the business end of snowmobiling.

2010  K. Livingstone Healthy Intelligent Training (ed. 2) 134 Barry Magee says that Snell's long runs during the business end of his track season were slow and restorative.