busylessadj.
/ˈbɪzɪlᵻs/, U.S. /ˈbɪzilᵻs/ rare.
Not busy; lacking business or (useful) occupation.Theobald's reading of The Tempest (quot. 1733) has been challenged by most editors; Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor's 1986 edition of the Compl. Wks. gives ‘busielest’; for other readings see their William Shakespeare: a Textual Companion (1987) 615/1.
ΚΠ
1662 Duchess of Newcastle Publick Wooing i. xvii, in Playes Written 386 Nature hath made women and children to have..busiless active, and such voluble tongues, as it is impossible they should be silent.
1733 Shakespeare's Tempest iii. i. 15 in L. Theobald Wks. Shakespeare I. 41 But these sweet thoughts do ev'n refresh my labour, Most busie-less [1623 busie lest], when I do it.
1840 London Sat. Jrnl. 18 Jan. 35/1 All these large-type columns are diligently perused by busiless barristers.
1987 J. Barth Tidewater Tales 447 A virtually abandoned building on busyless Wye Island.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1662