# bust

Pronunciation: US/AUS say "BUST" /ˈbʌst/; UK

## Noun

1. A sculpture showing a person's head and shoulders.
   - Simple: A statue of 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._
4. An arrest for a crime, or a police raid on a suspected criminal operation. *(slang)*
   - Simple: When the police arrest people or suddenly enter a place to stop a crime.
   - _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._
6. The measurement around a woman's chest, taken across her breasts.
   - Simple: The size around a woman's chest, measured over 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._
7. The downturn that follows a boom in an economic cycle; a recession.
   - Simple: A time when the economy grows weaker after a period of fast growth.
   - _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._
10. A player who fails to live up to the expectations placed on them.
   - Simple: A player who does much worse than people expected.
   - _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._
12. Something that turns out to be a failure or a disappointment, such as an event, plan, or business venture. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Something that fails or is very disappointing.
   - _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._
20. In chess, a refutation of an opening or of analysis that has already been published. *(slang)*
   - Simple: In chess, proof that an opening does not work, or that someone's published ideas about a game are wrong.
   - _The engine turned up a bust in the published analysis within minutes._
   - _Grandmasters spent decades looking for a bust to the gambit._

## Verb

2. To break something. *(colloquial, US)*
   - Simple: To break something, like a toy or a phone.
   - _I busted the blender trying to fix its switch._
   - _If you bust the remote, we're not buying another one._
3. To take one or more people into custody for a criminal offense. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To arrest one or more people for a crime.
   - _Undercover officers bust dozens of shoplifters at the mall every holiday season._
   - _He got busted by the feds for selling fake concert tickets online._
5. To catch someone in the act of doing something wrong, improper, or illegal, especially something done in secret. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To catch someone doing something wrong, often something they are trying to hide.
   - _His girlfriend busted him texting his ex at two in the morning._
   - _Proctors bust students copying answers off their phones every exam season._
8. To do or perform an action, especially a move, turn, or sporting trick, or to move quickly. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To do something, such as a turn or 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._
11. To show that a belief, theory, analysis, or strategy is false or unsound.
   - Simple: To show that an idea is wrong or that a strategy does not work.
   - _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._
13. In blackjack, to have a hand whose total goes over 21.
   - Simple: In blackjack, to get a score higher than 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._
14. In poker, to lose all of one's chips.
   - Simple: In poker, to lose all of your chips.
   - _If he loses this hand, he'll bust and go home with nothing._
   - _Half the field had busted by the second break._
15. To ejaculate, whether by releasing semen or by squirting. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To let out semen, or other fluid, at the high point of sexual pleasure.
16. To reduce someone to a lower rank, as in the army or a police force. *(colloquial, US)*
   - Simple: To move someone down to a lower rank, for example in the army or police.
   - _The colonel busted him down to corporal after he wrecked the jeep._
   - _One more complaint and the captain will bust you back to patrolman._
17. To attack, hit, or insult someone, with on placed before the person targeted. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To hit, attack, or say rude things to someone, with on before the person.
   - _Y'all always bust on me about my haircut._
   - _Some dudes started busting on him outside the corner store, so he ran._
18. To fire a gun. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To shoot a gun.
   - _Somebody busted a pistol outside the club, and the whole line scattered._
   - _Don't bust that gun around the kids, man._
21. To break in a wild or untrained animal, such as a horse, so that it can be ridden or worked. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To train a wild horse or other animal until people can ride or use it.
   - _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._

## Adjective

9. Having no money left, or bankrupt. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Having no money at all, or not able to pay what you owe.
   - _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._

## Noun

19. A wild party or spree; a bout of unrestrained merrymaking. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A wild party, or a time of having fun with no limits.
   - _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._

## Other meanings

- (verb) Of a headline, to run longer than the space set aside for it.
- (verb) In finance, to cancel a trade that has already been carried out, usually one made in error.

## Origin

**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").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bust (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).