a. Of persons and things: Suitable for business, befitting business; apt for business, practical, methodical, systematic. Hence Businesslike-ness.
1791. Burke, Corr. (1844), III. 349. They are steady, sensible, and have business-like heads.
1804. G. Rose, Diaries (1860), II. 157. His Lordship … had hardly ever anything businesslike to say.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., I. ii. 18. Inveterate and business-like gamblers.
1886. Pall Mall Budg., 8 July, 28/2. The essence of businesslikeness.
