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none of your beeswax

none of your beeswax

9.9
A rude phrase to tell someone something is not their business
  • idiom
  • Slang
translation icon : no es asunto tuyo
  • That's none of your beeswax!

Examples

  • Why do you care? It's none of your beeswax.

  • If you must know, it's none of your beeswax where I'm going tonight.

  • He snapped back, saying it was none of your beeswax and to leave him alone.

  • What time I go to bed is none of your beeswax.

  • If you must know, it's none of your beeswax where I'm going tonight.

  • What time I go to bed is none of your beeswax.

  • He snapped back, saying it was none of your beeswax and to leave him alone.

Synonyms

none of your business
vsnone of your beeswax
  • Informal
5.8

A private matter that does not concern you

has identical meaning but uses a different wording

Surface Forms

none of your beeswax main

Morphology

none + of + your + beeswax

Although the frame 'none of your ...' signals exclusion, the noun 'beeswax' (literal wax from bees) has no semantic link to 'business' or 'concern', and this phrase is a playful, dialectal euphemism. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words is unlikely to derive the idiomatic meaning 'none of your business' from the literal parts without prior exposure.

Etymology

None of your beeswax may come from a playful swap of the word 'business' with beeswax, a home item that sounds funny and less rude. Picture someone pointing at a jar of beeswax and saying 'don't touch it', so the phrase came to mean 'none of your business'.