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• buster
  buster

  noun

  a person who breaks up something.
• Buster
  Buster

  noun

  a male given name.

buster

¹ American  

[buhs-ter] / ˈbʌs tər /

noun

Informal.

• busters
  plural

1. a person who breaks up something.

   crime busters.

2. something that is very big or unusual for its kind.

3. a loud, uproarious reveler.

4. a frolic; spree.

5. (initial capital letter) (used as a familiar term of address to a man or boy who is an object to the speaker's annoyance or anger).

   Look, Buster, you're standing in my way!

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Buster ² American  

[buhs-ter] / ˈbʌs tər /

noun

1. a male given name.

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buster British  

/ ˈbʌstə /

noun

1. (in combination) a person or thing destroying something as specified

   dambuster

2. a term of address for a boy or man

3. a person who breaks horses

4. a spree, esp a drinking bout

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• busters
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of buster

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35; bust ² + -er ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

buster Buster busters

Healthcare costs typically mount at a higher rate than overall inflation, and Medigap policies can be a budget buster.

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

Debris “from bunker buster munitions can be seen around both sets of tunnel entrances,” Lair said in a social-media post.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026

Only the US was considered to have a "bunker buster" bomb strong and large enough to destroy Fordo.

From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2025

These bombers can carry the 30,000-pound GBU-57 “Massive Ordnance Penetrator” bunker buster, a weapon experts say is uniquely designed to penetrate underground nuclear facilities like Iran’s Fordow site.

From Salon ● Jun. 21, 2025

Photograph by Nicholas H. Shepherd in 1846 or 1847. buster play in American history.

From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly

Their last film together was 2018's "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs", an offbeat Oscar-nominated Western starring Tim Blake Nelson, which followed the 1950s Hollywood-set satirical comedy "Hail, Caesar!" in 2016.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

A humanoid’s frantic attempts to stay upright—arms flailing, legs skittering—bears an uncanny resemblance to the choreographed collapses of Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

Owners of a home in New York transformed it into a $2.9 million luxury retreat for their bearded collie named Buster.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

Norma Buster is the chief of staff at C.A.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026

And that’s right, he realized; Buster Friendly is going to reveal his carefully documented sensational expose tonight.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

These munitions, known as "bunker busters", have been used by Israel in the past to target underground facilities in both Gaza and Lebanon.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2025

From there, Strait downshifted again to the archetypal sad cowboy song “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” which could make even the toughest bronco busters reach for their handkerchiefs.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 18, 2023

The “monster” busters faced a challenge: They had to first locate the fish in Yunchan Lake, a 30-acre artificial body of water rife with aquatic plants near the bottom.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 25, 2022

“The X-Files” is a sort of alien busters , a not-to-be-taken-seriously hour in which a pair of FBI sleuths investigate unexplained cases that appear to involve paranormal phenomena.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2022

I could not bring you, but I have no problem telling you what I saw—the entire diaspora around me—hustlers, lawyers, Kappas, busters, doctors, barbers, Deltas, drunkards, geeks, and nerds.

From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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