idiom · neutral
get down to business
/ɡet daʊn tə ˈbɪznəs/GET·down·to·BUS·ness
to begin to do the main or serious work; to start discussing the important matters.
Examples
“After small talk, we finally got down to business and discussed the contract.”
“Let's stop chatting and get down to business.”
“The meeting started late, but once we got down to business it was productive.”
Band 8 sentence
“We wasted ten minutes on small talk before we finally got down to business and negotiated the key terms of the deal.”
Collocations
- get down to business about + noun
- Let's get down to business
Word family
Common mistakes
get down to the business→get down to business
get the business down→get down to business
Say it for a higher band
5start working→6begin the work→7+get down to business
Synonyms
get to work
begin in earnest
Easily confused
get the ball rolling
“After the introductions, they got down to business.”
Related words
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In Work
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