business end

noun

|Updated on: 3 Aug 2018

Definition of business end

: the end with, from, or through which a thing's function is fulfilled

the business end of a revolver

See business end defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of business end from the Web

Johnson: The studio immediately saw the business end of it.

— josh rottenberg, latimes.com, "Dwayne Johnson and Rawson Marshall Thurber on 'Skyscraper' and the state of Hollywood," 5 July 2018
The email security firm Agari found last month that 24 percent of email scams now focus on BEC, and 96 percent of businesses end up being targeted by one scam or another.

— lily hay newman, WIRED, "Feds Bust Dozens of Email Scammers, but Your Inbox Still Isn’t Safe," 12 June 2018
But trade groups, particularly those that represent tech companies, argue the move will backfire, with U.S. businesses ending up collateral damage.

— jay greene, WSJ, "Cree Girds for LED Tariffs It Says Will Sting," 4 July 2018
Stuck in the bottom three, the home side started the game one point behind 17th placed SPAL as the business end of the season looms, and a free swing at the Old Lady posed a great opportunity to move up the table.

— SI.com, "Crotone 1-1 Juventus: Magical Equaliser Hinders Juventus' Title Bid as Napoli Beat Udinese," 18 Apr. 2018
The Bundt pan roast chicken: A vast improvement on the once-ubiquitous beer can chicken, this roasting technique maximizes crispy, delicious skin by inserting the middle cone into the business end of the bird keeping it upright.

— paul stephen, San Antonio Express-News, "6 ways to use a Bundt pan you probably haven’t tried," 20 June 2018
Making comics is not easy (writes a guy who has never made one), and the business end can be unkind.

— will nevin, OregonLive.com, "TBT #34: Retired Robocop, Cold War vets and more coming in comics," 11 Apr. 2018
With 23 Premier League goals and 10 assists already to his name, Salah is comfortably favorite to claim a host of end of season awards even before the season reaches the business end of proceedings.

— SI.com, "Liverpool Aims to Fortify Top-Four Standing vs. Relegation-Threatened Newcastle," 2 Mar. 2018
Emotional end That's the business end of it, which supports the decision to close.

— jim riccioli, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Sub Station closes after 33 years in New Berlin as crowded sub-sandwich market claims another victim," 5 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'business end.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.