bust

BUST/ˈbʌst/

Pluralbusts

Verbbusts, busting, busted

23 meanings of bust

Practice

1
statuenouncountable
A sculpture showing a person's head and shoulders.
A bronze bust of the school's founder stands in the front hall.
The sculptor spent a year carving marble busts for the new memorial.
UsageUsually a bust of someone: a bronze bust of the founder.
2
breakverbcolloquialUStransitive
To break something.
I busted the blender trying to fix its switch.
If you bust the remote, we're not buying another one.
UsageThe past is busted or bust: he busted it, he bust the lock.
Similarbreak, wreck
Oppositefix, repair
3
arrestverbslangtransitive
To take one or more people into custody for a criminal offense.
Undercover officers bust dozens of shoplifters at the mall every holiday season.
He got busted by the feds for selling fake concert tickets online.
UsageOften get busted for something, with the police after by: busted by the feds.
Similararrest, nab
4
nounslangcountable
An arrest for a crime, or a police raid on a suspected criminal operation.
Federal agents carried out the bust at dawn, seizing guns and cash.
It was one of the largest drug busts in the city's history.
UsageOften with the target first: a drug bust. Police make or carry out a bust.
Similarraid, arrest
5
catch doing wrongverbslangtransitive
To catch someone in the act of doing something wrong, improper, or illegal, especially something done in secret.
His girlfriend busted him texting his ex at two in the morning.
Proctors bust students copying answers off their phones every exam season.
UsageBust someone doing something: she busted him sneaking out. Passive: get busted.
Similarcatch
Note
Anyone can bust you in this sense, not just the police, which is what sets it apart from the arrest meaning: a partner, a parent, a proctor at an exam.
6
chest sizenouncountable
The measurement around a woman's chest, taken across her breasts.
Measure your bust at its fullest point before you order a bra.
The size chart lists bust and waist measurements for every dress.
UsageUsually listed with waist and hips, often as a number: a 36-inch bust.
7
recessionnouncountable
The downturn that follows a boom in an economic cycle; a recession.
Investors who bought at the peak lost heavily when the bust arrived.
The oil town's population fell by half during the long bust that followed.
UsagePaired with boom: boom and bust, a boom-and-bust economy, the housing bust.
Similarrecession, slump, downturn, depression
Oppositeboom
8
verbslangtransitive
To do or perform an action, especially a move, turn, or sporting trick, or to move quickly.
Bust a left at the gas station, and you'll see the house.
When the DJ played their song, the whole table got up to bust a move.
UsageCommon in bust a move (dance) and bust a left or bust a right (turn).
Similarmake, take, do
9
no moneyadjectiveslang
Having no money left, or bankrupt.
Thousands of small firms went bust during the recession.
By the end of the tour the band was bust and had to borrow money to get home.
UsageMost often go bust, of a business: the firm went bust. It can also follow be.
Similarbankrupt, broke, insolvent
Oppositesolvent
10
failed playernouncountable
A player who fails to live up to the expectations placed on them.
Analysts labeled the first-round pick a bust after he started only six games in three seasons.
Teams with high draft picks are terrified of choosing another bust.
UsageOften in be a bust, label someone a bust, or a draft bust.
Similarflop, disappointment
Note
The label lands hardest on players who arrived with high hopes, such as an early draft pick or an expensive signing, and never played to them.
11
verbtransitive
To show that a belief, theory, analysis, or strategy is false or unsound.
The new exhibit aims to bust the myth that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time.
Her book busts several old ideas about how children learn to read.
UsageMost often bust a myth; myth-busting is common too.
Similardebunk, dispel, explode, disprove, refute
12
nounslangcountable
Something that turns out to be a failure or a disappointment, such as an event, plan, or business venture.
Their weekend in the mountains was a bust after the cabin's heat stopped working.
The concert was a bust: the sound was terrible, and the band played for forty minutes.
UsageUse be a bust or turn out to be a bust: the trip was a bust.
Similarfailure, flop, fiasco, disaster, dud
Oppositesuccess, hit, triumph
Note
It suits a trip, a party or an evening that did not live up to its promise: “Paris was a bust,” in The Simpsons episode “Opposites A-Frack” (2014).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The quotation “Paris was a bust” occurs in The Simpsons episode “Opposites A-Frack”. en.wiktionary.org
The episode first aired in 2014. en.wikipedia.org

Less common meanings

13
blackjackverbintransitive
In blackjack, to have a hand whose total goes over 21.
I hit on fifteen, drew a nine, and busted.
Some players stand on twelve against a dealer's six, hoping the dealer will bust.
Note
Going over loses the hand on the spot, before the dealer has played, so a player who busts loses even if the dealer then busts too. Asking for another card is hitting, and every hit on a hard total such as fifteen or sixteen risks a bust.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
Exceeding 21 immediately loses the player's hand, before the dealer plays out the dealer's hand. static.mgmresorts.com
A player who busts loses even if the dealer subsequently busts. vivalasvegascasinogames.com
Requesting another card is called hitting. venetianlasvegas.com
A hit on a soft fifteen or sixteen cannot bust the hand: its ace can be counted as 1 instead of 11. The claim needs to specify a hard total. pi.math.cornell.edu
14
knocked out (poker)verbintransitive
In poker, to lose all of one's chips.
If he loses this hand, he'll bust and go home with nothing.
Half the field had busted by the second break.
UsageOften bust out: he busted out in tenth place.
Note
In a tournament it usually ends a player's run, and players often say bust out: he busted out in tenth place. At a cash game it only means the chips in front of you are gone, and you can buy more and play on.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
This holds in a freezeout tournament; other tournaments may allow rebuys or re-entry. pokerstars.com
Busting in a cash game means losing all one's chips. en.wiktionary.org
A cash-game player can buy more chips and continue playing. pokerstars.com
15
sexual climaxverbslangvulgarintransitive
To ejaculate, whether by releasing semen or by squirting.
Similarcome, ejaculate
16
lower in rankverbcolloquialUStransitive
To reduce someone to a lower rank, as in the army or a police force.
The colonel busted him down to corporal after he wrecked the jeep.
One more complaint and the captain will bust you back to patrolman.
UsageUsually bust someone down to a lower rank: busted down to private.
Similardemote
Oppositepromote
Note
In American usage the new, lower rank follows the verb, often after down to: busted down to patrolman, or, in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), bust him into a PFC. The rank does real work, because bust also means to arrest: without one, a sergeant busted for drinking may have been jailed rather than demoted.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
The Manchurian Candidate film was released in 1962. en.wikipedia.org
The film contains the words “bust him into a PFC.” en.wiktionary.org
17
pick onverbslangintransitive
To attack, hit, or insult someone, with on placed before the person targeted.
Y'all always bust on me about my haircut.
Some dudes started busting on him outside the corner store, so he ran.
Similartease, mock
18
fire a gunverbslangtransitive
To fire a gun.
Somebody busted a pistol outside the club, and the whole line scattered.
Don't bust that gun around the kids, man.
Similarfire, shoot
Note
In African-American Vernacular English the object is usually the weapon itself, sometimes named by make: he busted his Glock. In other varieties, people fire or shoot a gun instead.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
Bust can also take the person as its direct object, as in the court-recorded examples “bust him” and “don’t bust me.” courts.state.md.us
19
wild partynoundatedcountable
A wild party or spree; a bout of unrestrained merrymaking.
After the harvest, the farmhands went on a bust that lasted three days.
The miners' Saturday-night bust spilled out of the saloon and into the street.
UsageUsually go on a bust; a beer bust is a party.
Similarspree, binge, bender
Note
The word has dated in this meaning, so a present-day reader meets it in older writing more than in talk. People go on a bust, and the phrase is easy to misread now that the police raid is the everyday noun: a bust that lasted three days was a celebration, not an arrest.
20
chess flawnounslangcountable
In chess, a refutation of an opening or of analysis that has already been published.
The engine turned up a bust in the published analysis within minutes.
Grandmasters spent decades looking for a bust to the gambit.
UsageFind a bust to a gambit, or a bust in someone's analysis.
Similarrefutation
Note
The refutation has to be concrete: a line of moves, often a single strong reply, that shows an opening or a published analysis fails, not a general sense that it is weak.
21
tame (animal)verbslangtransitive
To break in a wild or untrained animal, such as a horse, so that it can be ridden or worked.
It took her three weeks to bust the young mare so she would take a saddle.
He had busted wild broncs on ranches across Montana before he turned twenty.
UsageUse bust a horse without in. Both break a horse and break a horse in are also correct.
Similarbreak, tame
Note
This is horse-breaking slang, and the work it names is dangerous: a rider could be killed busting a wild mustang.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
Breaking in a wild horse can be fatal to the rider. en.wiktionary.org
22
verb
Of a headline, to run longer than the space set aside for it.
23
verb
In finance, to cancel a trade that has already been carried out, usually one made in error.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of bust apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 2–5, 7–21

The English word comes from Middle English busten, a form of bursten or bresten (“to burst”). Low German shows the same pattern, with basten alongside barsten in that meaning.

Meanings 1, 6

English took this from French buste, which came from Italian busto ("torso, upper body") and probably from Latin bustum, a "funeral monument, tomb" that first meant a "funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned." Bustum may be a shortening of Latin ambustum, the neuter of ambustus ("scorched"), a past participle of the verb ambūrō, "to scorch, burn all over." That verb joins ambi- ("around") and ūrō ("to burn").