busybodies

My answer: I want to be free to put on a home addition without having two dozen busybodies from the city screwing with me every other day.

What Do You Want to Be Free to Choose?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

And as we’ve seen from places like NYC, these laws are ineffective for their intended purpose. 4) Prof. Volokh’s slippery slope: once this fails on the national level, the next step for these busybodies is not going to be to give up on meddling with people’s private lives, but to directly regulate the ingredients.

The Volokh Conspiracy » New Health Care Law Regulates Restaurant Menus, Drive-Through Signs of Restaurant Chains 2010

We're so afraid of being called busybodies that even when we ought to step in we hesitate.

The Hero 1919

If they are ready for service in any part of the world, they are called busybodies, mischief-makers, politicians with no attachment to country.

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14: Simony-Tournon 1840-1916 1913

"We need to stand up for our rights" against congressional "busybodies," Peter Rosenstein writes Blade

DeMorning DeBonis: Feb. 4, 2011 Mike DeBonis 2011

Zimbabwe and foreign donor organizations as "busybodies" who funded opposition and reform groups to "create chaos among us."

ANC Daily News Briefing 1999

A lot of these issues would go away if the "busybodies" would presume good faith on the part of others, and try to empathize.

Liblogs News Feed 2009

The Other Side: Government 'busybodies' try to regulate private life Courtyard Apartments seeks new investors to ease debt

The Post: News 2008

The Other Side: Government 'busybodies' try to regulate private life Veterans Day deserved more honorable 'Post' coverage

The Post: News Adam Liebendorfer 2008

"busybodies"; they are quietly spoken to the saints, to men and women whose lives are pledged to virtue, and who are aspiring after the holiness of the perfected life in Christ.

The Epistles of St. Peter 1817-1893 1910