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business as usual

business as usual

54 3.0
Normal work or operations that continue despite problems
  • idiom
translation icon : todo sigue igual
  • I went to the office ready to get back to business as usual.
  • continue business-as-usual
  • back to business-as-usual
  • return to business-as-usual

The kids start rushing in and it's business as usual until I see her.

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Examples

  • Otherwise, it will be business as usual, as Miriam Santiago has long contended it would be.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The mayor reassured citizens that there would be business as usual in the city even while repairs were ongoing.

  • Until we know for sure, it is business as usual.

  • It's back to business as usual.

  • What I want is for everyone to conduct business as usual.

  • This clinic hasn t closed yet, so right now, it s business as usual.

  • Yet now that the spotlight has dimmed, many say it is business as usual at America's oldest boys' club.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Even after the storm, the staff ensured it was business as usual for the hotel, welcoming guests without delay.

  • Despite the recent challenges, the company announced that it would be business as usual by Monday.

Antonyms

126 4.1

A break in the normal flow of activity

46 4.7

The permanent end of a business, school, or service

How Normal

business as usual
54 3.0
interruption
99 3.0
disruption
126 4.1
chaos
438 3.1

Surface Forms

Morphology

business + as + usual

The meaning is directly built from 'business' (work/operations) combined with the common construction 'as usual' (in the normal way), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it means continuation of normal activities. This compositional pattern and equivalent phrases exist cross-linguistically, making the expression immediately understandable to B1 learners.

Etymology

Business as usual may come from a simple picture: imagine a shopkeeper still serving customers while trouble happens outside. The business, the work, goes on in the usual way, so the phrase means 'the normal activity continues' even when things are not normal.