bust

¹ American  

[buhst] / bʌst /

noun

1. a sculptured, painted, drawn, or engraved representation of the upper part of the human figure, especially a portrait sculpture showing only the head and shoulders of the subject.

2. the chest or breast, especially a woman's bosom.

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bust ² American  

[buhst] / bʌst /

verb (used without object)

• busts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• busted,
  past participle,  past
• bust,
  past participle,  past
• busting
  present participle

1. Informal.

   1. to burst.

   2. to go bankrupt.

   3. to collapse from the strain of making a supreme effort.

      She was determined to make straight A's or bust.

2. Cards.

   1. Draw Poker. to fail to make a flush or straight by one card.

   2. Blackjack. to draw cards exceeding the count of 21.

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verb (used with object)

• busts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• busted,
  past participle,  past
• bust,
  past participle,  past
• busting
  present participle

1. Informal.

   1. to burst.

   2. to bankrupt; ruin financially.

2. to demote, especially in military rank or grade.

   He was busted from sergeant to private three times.

3. to tame; break.

   to bust a bronco.

4. Slang.

   1. to place under arrest.

      The gang was busted and put away on narcotics charges.

   2. to subject to a police raid.

      The bar has been busted three times for selling drinks to minors.

5. Informal.

   1. to hit.

   2. to break; fracture.

      She fell and busted her arm.

noun

1. a failure.

2. Informal. a hit; sock; punch.

   He got a bust in the nose before he could put up his hands.

3. a sudden decline in the economic conditions of a country, marked by an extreme drop in stock-market prices, business activity, and employment; depression.

4. Slang.

   1. an arrest.

   2. a police raid.

5. Informal. a drinking spree; binge.

6. Cards.

   1. a very weak hand.

   2. Bridge. a hand lacking the potential to take a single trick.

adjective

1. Informal. bankrupt; broke.

verb phrase

1. bust up

   1. to break up; separate.

      Sam and his wife busted up a year ago.

   2. to damage or destroy.

      Soldiers got in a fight and busted up the bar.

idioms

1. bust ass, to fight with the fists; strike or thrash another.

2. bust on,

   1. to attack physically; beat up.

   2. to criticize or reprimand harshly.

   3. to make fun of or laugh at; mock.

   4. to inform on.

3. bust one's ass, to make an extreme effort; exert oneself.

bust ¹ British  

/ bʌst /

verb

1. to burst or break

2. to make or become bankrupt

3. (tr) (of the police) to raid, search, or arrest

   the girl was busted for drugs

4. (tr) to demote, esp in military rank

5. (tr) to break or tame (a horse, etc)

6. (tr) to punch; hit

7. See gut

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noun

1. a raid, search, or arrest by the police

2. a punch; hit

3. a failure, esp a financial one; bankruptcy

4. a drunken party

adjective

1. broken

2. bankrupt

3. to become bankrupt

bust ² British  

/ bʌst /

noun

1. the chest of a human being, esp a woman's bosom

2. a sculpture of the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a person

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bust More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing bust

• break (bust) one's ass
• go broke (bust)

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Usage

What does or bust mean? The phrase or bust is used when someone is pursuing an end no matter what, even if they fail trying. Saying New York City or bust, for example, means someone is doing absolutely everything to go there. How is or bust pronounced?[ awr buhst ]

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• busting
  present
• bust
  past
• busted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bust
  simple
• busts
  simple
• have bust
  perfect
• have busted
  perfect
• has bust
  perfect
• has busted
  perfect
• am busting
  progressive
• are busting
  progressive
• is busting
  progressive
• have been busting
  perfect progressive
• has been busting
  perfect progressive

Past

• bust
  simple
• busted
  simple
• had bust
  perfect
• had busted
  perfect
• was busting
  progressive
• were busting
  progressive
• had been busting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bust
  simple
• will have bust
  perfect
• will have busted
  perfect
• will be busting
  progressive
• will have been busting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of bust¹

First recorded in 1640–50; from French buste, from Italian busto, probably from Latin bustum “funeral pyre, ashes, grave mound, tomb,” presumably by association with the busts erected over graves

Origin of bust²

First recorded in 1755–65; variant of burst, by loss of r before s, as in ass ², bass ², passel, etc.

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Explanation

If you bust something, you have broken it. A bust can also be a statue of someone from the shoulders up. Be careful to not bust a bust on your next field trip! Several meanings of bust are pretty discouraging. You might describe your business as bust if it's totally out of money, for example. Or you might threaten your younger sister, "If you bust my ceramic unicorn, you're in big trouble!" There's also the kind of bust that might sit on your piano, like a bust of Mozart or Bach — a statue of a person's head and upper shoulders. This is the oldest meaning of the word, from the Italian busto, "upper body."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bust busts busted busting

S&P 500 at 10,000 or bust: New ETF offers investors all-or-nothing bet on the index.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

For example, during the 2000 tech bust and 2001 recession, investment-grade credit spreads widened by around 1.8 percentage points, but the 10-year Treasury note’s yield fell by as much as 2.8 points.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Real estate has always gone in cycles, boom followed by bust, and there is no particular reason to think “this time is different,” because in finance it seldom is.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 9, 2026

While a corporate bond might not repay if the company goes bust, a U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

I was laughing so hard I thought I’d bust a gut.

From "Crash" by Jerry Spinelli

"My work also busts the myth that Byfield always did what he was told and never complained. He was very strong-willed but also suffered a great deal of hardship and psychological strain."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026

The post-financial-crisis era of easy money has led to repeated booms and busts in small, and sometimes not-so-small, parts of the market in the past 15 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026

She motioned to the Egyptian busts and said: "These heads, they talk to me."

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

And despite the recent flurry of news and headlines, there is nothing new about these busts.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

Cillian busts in the back door, goes into the prayer room which we never use, and starts pulling boards up from the floor.

From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness

Hardened globs of crude cling to fishing nets pulled from the lake, and natural gas gurgles up from busted underwater pipelines.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

In that scenario, it would be busted down one or more divisions and forced to work its way back up over the course of several seasons.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

Retrieving busted bots on stretchers, one of the Humanoid Games’ best visual gags, may actually have originated with her league.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

He has even busted Bhangra moves with Jimmy Fallon, external, with the US talk show host labelling him "the biggest Punjabi artist on the planet".

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

Hoping no one comes in, I take off my busted glasses and then my shirt— suuuuper carefully so it doesn’t touch ketchup hair—and fold it neatly, setting it aside.

From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell

Should a player who transfers and has superior talent immediately get to start over a player who has been in the program for three years busting his butt?

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

Arzani appeared in acres of space on the left, Colby Donovan having over-committed to attack and now busting a gut in a forlorn attempt to recover.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

Humanoid robots marched through Chicago’s convention center last week, delivering snacks, shaking hands and busting out dance moves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

Now, Burnham is marketing himself as the one who can reshape British politics and re-engineer the British state, partly by busting up the concentration of power in London.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026

“Oh, right, you’ve never heard of moisturizer. You were just looking for an excuse to come busting into my room!”

From "Schooled" by Gordon Korman

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