bust

[buhst]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bust ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object)

Informal.

to burst.
to go bankrupt.
to collapse from the strain of making a supreme effort: She was determined to make straight A's or bust.

Cards.

Draw Poker.to fail to make a flush or straight by one card.
Blackjack.to draw cards exceeding the count of 21.

verb (used with object)

Informal.

to burst.
to bankrupt; ruin financially.

to demote, especially in military rank or grade: He was busted from sergeant to private three times.

to tame; break: to bust a bronco.

Slang.

to place under arrest: The gang was busted and put away on narcotics charges.
to subject to a police raid: The bar has been busted three times for selling drinks to minors.

Informal.

to hit.
to break; fracture: She fell and busted her arm.

noun

a failure.

Informal. a hit; sock; punch: He got a bust in the nose before he could put up his hands.

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

Slang.

an arrest.
a police raid.

Informal. a drinking spree; binge.

Cards.

a very weak hand.
Bridge.a hand lacking the potential to take a single trick.

adjective

Informal. bankrupt; broke.

Verb Phrases

bust up, Informal.

to break up; separate: Sam and his wife busted up a year ago.
to damage or destroy: Soldiers got in a fight and busted up the bar.

Idioms

bust ass, Slang: Vulgar. to fight with the fists; strike or thrash another.

bust on, Slang.

to attack physically; beat up.
to criticize or reprimand harshly.
to make fun of or laugh at; mock.
to inform on.

bust one's ass, Slang: Vulgar. to make an extreme effort; exert oneself.

Origin of bust

1755–65; variant of burst, by loss of r before s, as in ass², bass², passel, etc.

Can be confusedburst burst (see usage note at the current entry)

Usage note

Historically bust is derived from a dialect pronunciation of burst and is related to it much as cuss is related to curse. Bust is both a noun and a verb and has a wide range of meanings for both uses. Many are slang or informal. A few, as “a decline in economic conditions, depression,” are standard.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for busted

apprehend, pinch, detain, fracture, burst, break, fail, pauperize, crash, nab, cop, search, raid, catch, collar, fold, rupture

Examples from the Web for busted

Contemporary Examples of busted

Earlier in the year, TMZ alleged, citing a police report, that a hotel room spat between the two left Nicki with a busted lip.
Nicki Minaj Bares Her Own Vulnerability on ‘The Pinkprint’
Rawiya Kameir
December 16, 2014
Ex-hippie Billy Hayes was busted for smuggling hash and thrown in a terrifying Turkish prison.
The Unbelievable (True) Story of the World’s Most Infamous Hash Smuggler
Marlow Stern
November 14, 2014
Busted is not the only journalism-inspired Hollywood project in various stages of production.
Hollywood Thinks Journalists Are Sexy Again
Lloyd Grove
September 17, 2014
Weeks before he was abducted, alleged members of a kidnapping network tied to ISIS were busted in London.
Foley Abduction Linked to British Jihadi Kidnapping Ring
Josh Rogin, Eli Lake
August 20, 2014
He was busted but far from bust, and by February Pseudo had 10 channels.
A ‘Truman Show’ For Today: The Return of Josh Harris
Anthony Haden-Guest
July 11, 2014

Historical Examples of busted

But she busted in on him there and just piled into him and snowed him under.
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Then he busted out, and had another of them forty-rod laughs of hisn.
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Some one shore up and busted him a plenty with a soft-nose thirty.
Louisiana Lou
William West Winter
Busted more clotheslines than I've got fingers and toes, that pup has.
The Woman-Haters
Joseph C. Lincoln
When I didn't hop him ag'in, the boys come over to see if I was busted.
The Duke Of Chimney Butte
G. W. Ogden

British Dictionary definitions for busted

busted

adjective

informal caught out doing something wrong and therefore in troubleyou are so busted

bust

noun

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

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

Word Origin for bust

C17: from French buste, from Italian busto a sculpture, of unknown origin

bust

verb busts, busting, busted or bust

to burst or break

to make or become bankrupt

(tr) (of the police) to raid, search, or arrestthe girl was busted for drugs

(tr) US and Canadian to demote, esp in military rank

(tr) US and Canadian to break or tame (a horse, etc)

(tr) mainly US to punch; hit

bust a gut See gut (def. 9)

noun

a raid, search, or arrest by the police

mainly US a punch; hit

US and Canadian a failure, esp a financial one; bankruptcy

a drunken party

adjective

broken

bankrupt

go bust to become bankrupt

Word Origin for bust

C19: from a dialect pronunciation of burst

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for busted

adj.

"broken, ruined," 1837, past participle adjective from bust (v.).

bust

n.1

1690s, "sculpture of upper torso and head," from French buste (16c.), from Italian busto "upper body," from Latin bustum "funeral monument, tomb," originally "funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned," perhaps shortened from ambustum, neuter of ambustus "burned around," past participle of amburere "burn around, scorch," from ambi- "around" + urere "to burn." Or perhaps from Old Latin boro, the early form of classical Latin uro "to burn." Sense development in Italian is probably from Etruscan custom of keeping dead person's ashes in an urn shaped like the person when alive. Meaning "bosom" is by 1884.

bust

n.2

variant of burst (n.), 1764, American English. For loss of -r-, cf. ass (n.2). Originally "frolic, spree;" sense of "sudden failure" is from 1842. Meaning "police raid or arrest" is from 1938. Phrase ______ or bust as an emphatic expression attested by 1851 in British depictions of Western U.S. dialect. Probably from earlier expression bust (one's) boiler, by late 1840s, a reference to steamboat boilers exploding when driven too hard.

bust

"to burst," 1806, variant of burst (v.); for loss of -r-, cf. ass (n.2). Meaning "go bankrupt" is from 1834. Meaning "break into" is from 1859. The slang meaning "demote" (especially in a military sense) is from 1918; that of "place under arrest" is from 1953 (earlier "to raid" from Prohibition). In card games, "to go over a score of 21," from 1939. Related: Busted; busting.

Idioms and Phrases with busted

bust

In addition to the idioms beginning with bust

bust a gut
bust one's ass

also see:

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