Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Marked by excessive eagerness in offering unwanted services or advice to others: an officious host; officious attention.
- adj. Informal; unofficial.
- adj. Archaic Eager to render services or help others.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Doing or ready to do kind offices; attentive; courteous and obliging; hence, friendly, in a general sense.
- Having a bearing on or connection with official duties, but not formally official.
- Forward in tendering services; zealous in interposing uninvited in the affairs of others; meddling; obtrusive.
- Synonyms Impertinent, Officious (see impertinent); Active, Busy. etc. (see active); meddlesome, obtrusive, interfering, intermeddling, pragmatical.
Wiktionary
- adj. obsolete obliging, attentive, eager to please
- adj. Offensively intrusive or interfering
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. rare Pertaining to, or being in accordance with, duty.
- adj. Archaic Disposed to serve; kind; obliging.
- adj. Importunately interposing services; intermeddling in affairs in which one has no concern; meddlesome.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. intrusive in a meddling or offensive manner
Etymologies
- 16th Century, from Latin officiōsus ("kindly"), from officium ("service"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin officiōsus, obliging, dutiful, from officium, duty; see office. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“A simplistic way of looking at this would be to adopt a kind of officious bystander test who is stood alongside the states making the treaties.”
“There is a kind of officious attentiveness which is really the expression of a species of vanity.”
“At one time, however, "officious" negotiations were kept up between the Holy See and the Italian Government through the agency of Monsignor Carini, Prefect of the Vatican Library and a great friend of Crispi.”
“Incomparably clever is the satire on the benevolent societies which exist to furnish a kind of officious sense of virtue to their aristocratic members.”
“All, therefore, that happened amiss, in the course even of domestic affairs, was attributed to the government; and as it always happens in this kind of officious universal interference, what began in odious power ended always, I may say without an exception, in contemptible imbecility.”
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 05 (of 12)
“The Sheriff made a joke over the similarity of the words 'officious' and 'official' to which there was some laughter, at which point one of the court officials sternly rebuked those present with a shout of "Silence in court!”
“Ilicak was recently convicted in both a compensation case and a criminal trial for her article titled, "The immunity of the president", in which she described Osman Kacmaz, the presiding judge of the 1st High Criminal Court of Sincan (Ankara), as "officious".”
“officious" lie for some useful purpose, and a "mischievous" lie in order to injure someone.”
“officious" action, and how subtle are the changes which can be rung upon the two, but there was nothing of that description here.”
“officious" by the French journals, and it remains to be seen in which of the two senses attaching to the word the Americans will interpret the interference -- "officious" implying, according to their own Noah”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘officious’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
oakum, oakus, oast, obambulate, obdormition, obduracy, obedible, obedientiary, obeism, obeliscolychny, obelize, obelus and 504 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Remember
edify, inchoate, evince, ostensibly, subvert, paradigm, obligatory, flippant, extemporize, prolific, dissident, ambivalent and 12 more...
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The best words
dd
insipid, insouciant, interdict, insularity, internecine, inveigle, invidious, irresolute, jollity, irascible, libretto, promulgate and 84 more...
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My preparation
for GRE ofcourse
exonerate, incipient, disparate, morbid, engross, ebullient, predilection, propensity, allure, qualms, chastise, perpetuate and 111 more...
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princeton review
jubilance, obtrusive, maladjusted, prodigious, incredulous, stolidity, inured, stoicism, sidereal, boisterous, etiolated, circumscribed and 90 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for officious.
patiomensch I always think of the opening of THE SHINING when I hear/read this word. "Officious little prick." Apr 13, 2007