bust
Bust is defined as a period of economic down time, a police raid in which arrests are made or something that doesn't go as planned and that is considered a failure.
(noun)- An example of a bust is a period of economic slowdown or a great depression.
- An example of a bust is when the police raid a home and arrest people on drug charges.
- An example of a bust is when you try to sew something and it fails utterly and you end up with some useless pieces of fabric.
The definition of bust is a word used for a woman's breasts, or a sculpture of a person from the neck up.
(noun)- An example of a bust is a woman's breasts.
- An exampleof a bust is a sculpture of the head of Michelangelo.
To bust is to break something, to cause something to be broken, getting someone out of prison, or arresting someone.
(verb)- When a new product release breaks every record, this is an example of a bust of every record.
- When a couple splits up, this is an example of the bust up of the marriage.
- When someone is broken out of prison in an escape attempt, this is an example of a bust.
- When a police officer arrests a suspect, this is an example of a bust by a police officer.
See bust in Webster's New World College Dictionary
noun
- a piece of sculpture representing the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a human body
- the human bosom; esp., the breasts of a woman
Origin: Fr buste < It busto
transitive verb
- to burst or break
- to make penniless or bankrupt
- ☆ to demote in rank
- ☆ to tame (esp. broncos)
- ☆ to hit
- ☆ to arrest
- to make a raid () on
Origin: orig., dial. var. of burst
intransitive verb
- to burst or break
- to become penniless or bankrupt
noun
- ☆ a person or thing that is a total failure
- ☆ a financial collapse; economic crash
- ☆ a punch
- ☆ a spree
- ☆ an arrest
Related Forms:
- busted adjective
See bust in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
- A sculpture representing a person's head, shoulders, and upper chest.
- a. A woman's bosom.b. The human chest.
Origin:
Origin: French buste
Origin: , from Italian busto
Origin: , possibly from Latin bustum, sepulchral monument
.verb bust·ed, bust·ing, busts verb, transitive
- Slang a. 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).b. 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 a. To place under arrest.b. To make a police raid on.
- Slang a. To undergo breakage; become broken.b. 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.
- 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 a. An arrest.b. A raid.
Origin:
Origin: Variant of burst
.Learn more about bust
