Definition
The part of an object (chiefly a tool or weapon) that is physically used for its operation, rather than some other part such as the part by which it is held.
The part of an activity, period of time, etc., which is most important and produces the significant result.
Origins
From business (noun) + end (noun).
In Context
- "staring down the business end of a [calibre of pistol here]"
- "The business end of a hammer is known as the head."
- "Indeed, it [the Speaker's Gallery] is universally agreed to be a place of a very disagreeable description, though certainly preferable to that in which "Strangers" are placed. You find yourself at so great a distance from the Speaker's, or business end of the House, that you cannot distinctly recognise the features of a single Member."
- "Speed by now was now down to 25 m.p.h., but that universal tool, the insulated screwdriver, with its business end gingerly applied to the relay coil, enabled us to keep going as far as Grantham, where a more permanent remedy could be effected."
- "The preacher stood up from his table, in his right hand he held a bible (hey-hey) / And in his left, the business end of a Winchester rifle"
- "There is even an example of convergent evolution at a molecular level in two enzymes, one from soil bacteria and the other from man, which have exactly the same patterns of amino acids at the "business ends.""
- "On this day, with expectation rising and the unmistakable feeling around this sweeping Samara Stadium that the World Cup is really reaching the business end, England delivered."