From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbustbust1 /bʌst/ ●●○ verb (past tense and past participle bust British English, busted especially American English) [transitive] 1 breakBREAK informal to break something I bust my watch this morning. Tony busted the door down.2 police a) CATCHif the police bust someone, they charge them with a crime He was busted by US inspectors at the border.bust somebody for something Davis got busted for drugs. b) LOOK FOR informal if the police bust a place, they go into it to look for something illegal Federal agents busted several money-exchange businesses.3 → bust a gut4 money American English informal to use too much money, so that a business etc must stop operating The trip to Spain will probably bust our budget.5 → crime-busting/union-busting/budget-busting etc6 → ... or bust!7 militaryPMDOWN especially American English to give someone a lower military rank as a punishment SYN demote → bust out → bust up→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
bust• By 1974 the boom had bust.• The toy is made of a balloon in a cloth sack that can be hit without busting.• They stamp out graffiti, quash drug deals, bust carjacking rings, rescue drug overdose victims, even prevent suicides.• The police had to bust down the door.• Jones was busted down to the rank of private.• She fell and busted her knee.• Karl fell off his skateboard and busted his arm.• The ball hit him in the face and bust his glasses.• Every time you hear about a rave being busted, it's always E that the ravers were taking.• So the bizzies come round here and bust me for possession.• His suitcase busted open, and everything went all over the floor in the hotel lobby.• Dallas busted the game open when Irvin slipped past cornerback Terrell Buckley, who is still waiting for help from his safeties.• He busted the side window with a bat.• Dean got really drunk and started busting up the bar.• The window busted when the ball hit it.bustbust2 ●○○ noun [countable] 1 AVSa model of someone’s head, shoulders, and upper chest, usually made of stone or metalbust of a bust of Beethoven2 HBHDCa woman’s breasts, or the part of her clothes that covers her breasts3 DCa measurement around a woman’s breast and back a 36-inch bust4 informalLOOK FOR a situation in which the police go into a place in order to catch people doing something illegal a drug bust → boom to bust at boom1(1)Examples from the Corpus
bust• Hopefully, some of the more level-headed members of the council can prevail and make the Boom Town fiasco a bust.• There was a bust of Miguel de Unamuno at the bottom of the staircase, and it seemed to have been defaced.• High-tech stocks have always been highly volatile, partly because of their past booms and busts.• On the tables are busts of Lincoln.• a drug bust• a 30-inch bustdrug bust• All the charges stem from Conoline's refusal to cooperate with an investigation into a botched Dec. 7 drug bust.• She tells me that Jamie has been caught in a drugs bust at the Cross Keys pub.• Nobody had ever survived a drugs bust in Hollywood.• Naturally, the drug bust was a bust, as dealers heard about it on the radio and disappeared.bustbust3 adjective [not before noun] 1 → go bust2 BROKEN British English informal broken The television’s bust again.Examples from the Corpus
bust• So, next question: Is Ratners going bust?• I can't carry all the shopping home in this bag - it's bust.• There's no point in trying to mend it, it's completely bust.• You can't record anything - the VCR's busted.• And it's particularly daft when the firm itself has gone bust.• The door's bust again. Can you get it fixed?• a busted air-conditioner• Our television's bust, and so's the radio.• In the yard, Miguel found a writing table with a busted leg.• The bank also found that young people were less likely to go bust than older people.• Programme S.TODAY, 21.10.93SNA A director of a bust timeshare firm has admitted breaching strict consumer protection laws.From Longman Business Dictionarybustbust1 /bʌst/ adjective informal FINANCE go bust if a business goes bust, it cannot continue to operate because it does not have enough money to pay its debtsThe company eventually went bust, leaving debts of £7 million.bustbust2 verb (past tense and past participle bust) → bust something → up→ See Verb tableOrigin bust1 (1700-1800) burst bust2 1. (1600-1700) French buste, from Italian busto, from Latin bustum “place where a body is buried, statue put by such a place”2. (1900-2000) → BUST1 bust3 (1900-2000) From a past participle of → BUST1 