# bus

Pronunciation: say "BUS" US /bʌs/, AUS /bɐs/; UK

## Noun

1. A large motor vehicle that carries many passengers by road, on local routes or for long-distance travel.
   - Simple: A big vehicle that carries many people on roads, often along a fixed route.
   - _She missed the bus and had to wait twenty minutes for the next one._
   - _The city added electric buses to its downtown routes last year._
2. A shared electrical or communication connection linking several circuits, components, or computers, including a network built around such a connection.
   - Simple: A shared connection that carries power or information between the parts of a machine or system, or between computers.
   - _The motherboard's data bus transfers information between the processor and memory._
   - _All the generators feed into a common bus at the substation._
6. An ambulance. *(slang)*
   - Simple: An ambulance: the vehicle that rushes sick or hurt people to the hospital.
   - _Dispatch sent a bus to the scene within minutes of the 911 call._
   - _Get him on the bus. He's losing too much blood._

## Verb

3. To travel by bus.
   - Simple: To go from one place to another by riding a bus.
   - _Many commuters bus into the city rather than drive._
   - _She buses to campus when the weather turns bad._
4. To transport people by bus, including (in the US) taking students by bus to a more distant school to achieve racial integration.
   - Simple: To take people somewhere by bus, for example children to a school far from home.
   - _The hotel bused guests to the conference center every hour._
   - _Organizers will bus volunteers between the two venues._
5. To clear dirty dishes and leftovers from tables in a restaurant, or to work doing this. *(US)*
   - Simple: To take away dirty plates from tables in a restaurant, or to have this as your job.
   - _A server bused our table the moment we stood up._
   - _New hires learn to bus tables before they ever take an order._

## Noun

7. An airplane. *(dated)*
   - Simple: An airplane: a joking name that pilots sometimes use for the plane they fly.
   - _The crew patched the old bus up and had her flying again by morning._
   - _Years after the war, the old flier still missed climbing into the cockpit of his trusty bus each morning._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The core structure of a satellite or spacecraft, supporting its payload and containing the systems for power, propulsion, and control.
- (noun) The part of a MIRV missile, fitted with on-board motors, that delivers warheads to their targets.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–4, 6–7** — A clipping of 'omnibus', which replaced the earlier form 'bus, where the apostrophe marked the shortening; the spelling likely changed because modern speakers no longer feel it as a clipped word. The electrical sense is a figurative use of the automotive sense.
**Meaning 5** — A back-formation from 'busboy'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bus (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).