Meaning & use
busy lizzy
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Meaning
nouncountable
A popular garden plant with fleshy stems and many flat, five-petaled flowers in bright colors, often grown in shade.
Grammar: Countable: one busy lizzy, two busy lizzies. The plural is busy lizzies.
Patterns
- a pot of busy lizzies
- busy lizzies in the shade
She planted busy lizzies along the north wall because they flower well without much sun.
The busy lizzy is a favourite for hanging baskets in British gardens.
Word forms
| plural | busy lizzies |
|---|
Common combinations
- grow busy lizzies
- They grow busy lizzies from seed every spring.
- busy lizzy plants
- The busy lizzy plants need watering every day in hot weather.
- a bed of busy lizzies
- The garden had a bright bed of busy lizzies under the tree.
Synonyms and how they differ
- impatiens
- The botanical and more formal name for the same plant; use it in scientific or garden-center contexts.
- patience plant
- An older common name, less frequent in modern British English.
Commonly confused: busy lizzy or busy Lizzie?
busy lizzy vs busy Lizzie
A variant spelling of the same plant; it does not refer to a person named Lizzie.
Practice
Which sentence uses the plant name correctly?
Choose one answer.
The plural of 'busy lizzy' is 'busy lizzies' (change -y to -ies), so option An is correct. Option B uses the singular with a plural number, and options C and D are not standard spellings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “busy lizzy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.