busman's holiday
Preserved but no longer current.
There is a story that in old horse-bus days a driver spent his holiday travelling to and on a bus driven by one of his pals. From this has arisen the phrase, which means occupying one's spare and free time in carrying on with one's usual work, in other words, a holiday in name only.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “busman's holiday” mean?
There is a story that in old horse-bus days a driver spent his holiday travelling to and on a bus driven by one of his pals. From this has arisen the phrase, which means occupying one's spare and free time in carrying on with one's usual work, in other words, a holiday in name only.
Is “busman's holiday” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.