bust
1 (bŭst)
[French buste, from Italian busto, possibly from Latin bustum, sepulchral monument.]
noun
- A sculpture representing a person's head, shoulders, and upper chest.
- A woman's bosom.
- The human chest.
bust
2 (bŭst)
[Variant of burst.]
verb: bust·ed, bust·ing, busts.
transitive verb
- Slang
- To smash or break, especially forcefully: “Mr. Luger worked it with a rake, busting up the big clods, making a flat brown table” (Garrison Keillor)
- To render inoperable or unusable: busted the vending machine by putting in foreign coins.
- To cause to come to an end; break up: an attempt to bust the union.
- To break or tame (a horse).
- To cause to become bankrupt or short of money: “Too often, the promise of a high-tech design leads to a weapon that busts the budget” (Business Week)
- Slang To reduce in rank. See synonyms at demote
- To hit; punch.
- Slang
- To place under arrest.
- To make a police raid on.
intransitive verb
- Slang
- To undergo breakage; become broken.
- To burst; break: “Several companies have threatened to bust out of their high-wage contracts by the dubious technique of declaring bankruptcy” (Washington Post)
- To become bankrupt or short of money.
- Games To lose at blackjack by exceeding a score of 21.
noun
- A failure; a flop: “The home-style bean curd is a bust, oily and rubbery” (Mark and Gail Barnett)
- A state of bankruptcy.
- A time or period of widespread financial depression: “Bankers consider the region's diversified economy to be good protection against a possible real estate bust” (American Banker)
- A punch; a blow.
- A spree: a fraternity beer bust.
- Slang
- An arrest.
- A raid.
idioms
- bust (one's) butt
- To make a strenuous effort; work very hard.
