bust.
To break.
Meaning & usage
To break.
I busted my cooker while trying to fix it.
To arrest (someone or a group of people) for a crime.
Aaron got busted by the feds for leaking confidential government documents on Reddit.
To catch (someone) in the act of doing something wrong, socially and morally inappropriate, or illegal, especially when being done in a sneaky or secretive state.
To debunk, dispel (a belief).
We want to bust the myth that real men don't eat quiche.
An emphatic synonym of do or get.
He busted huge air off that jump!
To reduce in rank.
He busted him down to patrolman for insubordination.
To undo a trade, generally an error trade, that has already been executed.
To lose all of one's chips.
To exceed a score of 21.
To break in (an animal).
To have sex with (a woman or girl) for the first time, to take another's virginity.
To ejaculate; to eject semen or to squirt.
I busted a fat one just wackin' it to the selfie she sent me.
For a headline to exceed the amount of space reserved for it.
To refute an established opening.
To shoot (a gun).
He busted his glock.
To attack, hit or insult (someone).
He's always busting on you.
To do or perform; to move quickly.
Bust a left turn.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English busten, a variant of bursten, bresten (“to burst”). Compare Low German basten, a variant of barsten (“to burst”). Cognate with burst and bost.
The act of arresting someone for a crime, or raiding a suspected criminal operation.
a narcotics bust
A police raid or takedown of a criminal enterprise.
A failed enterprise; a bomb.
A refutation of an opening, or of a previously published analysis.
A disappointment.
A player who fails to meet expectations.
The downward portion of a boom and bust cycle; a recession.
A spree, unrestrained revel, or wild party.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English busten, a variant of bursten, bresten (“to burst”). Compare Low German basten, a variant of barsten (“to burst”). Cognate with burst and bost.
Without any money, broke, bankrupt.
After months of financial problems, the company finally went bust.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English busten, a variant of bursten, bresten (“to burst”). Compare Low German basten, a variant of barsten (“to burst”). Cognate with burst and bost.
A sculptural portrayal of a person's head and shoulders.
A woman's breasts; the circumference of her chest measured around the breasts.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Latin būstum Italian bustobor. French bustebor. English bust Borrowed from French buste, from Italian busto (“torso, upper body”), assumed to stem from Latin bustum (“funeral monument, tomb," originally "funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned”). Perhaps shortened from Latin ambustum, neuter of ambustus (“scorched”), past participle of ambūrō (“burn all over, scorch”), from ambi- (“around”) + ūrō (“to burn”). Compare Old Norse beysti.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.