busy work
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Tasks that keep someone occupied but are not important or productive.
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Nhiệm vụ giữ người nào đó bận rộn nhưng không quan trọng
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: work that keeps one busy
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The intern was given busy work to do on his first day.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “busy work” mean?
Tasks that keep someone occupied but are not important or productive. Literally: work that keeps one busy
Is “busy work” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.