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bust

[buhst]

noun

a sculptured, painted, drawn, or engraved representation of the upper part of the human figure, especially a portrait sculpture showing only the head and shoulders of the subject.

the chest or breast, especially a woman's bosom.

Origin:
1685–95; < French buste < Italian busto, probably < Latin būstum grave mound, tomb, literally, funeral pyre, ashes; presumably by association with the busts erected over graves

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Bust is always a great word to know.

So is bezoar. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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Example Sentences

There are three reasons, though, why it's a mistake to read this chart as saying there has not been a consumer bust.

In theirs, the e-learning boom apparently has gone bust.

Japan provides a nasty warning of what can happen when boom turns to bust.

EXPAND

There are three reasons, though, why it's a mistake to read this chart as saying there has not been a consumer bust.

In theirs, the e-learning boom apparently has gone bust.

Japan provides a nasty warning of what can happen when boom turns to bust.

And their plaster cast, pictured here, turned out remarkably similar to the silicone-skinned bust.

Some claim creams can bust the bulgy bane of many, whereas others swear by pricey procedures.

Or maybe bust out some dance moves in the middle of a train station.

But the food is hearty, servings are generous, and the tab won't bust your budget.

In recent months, the group has worked with television stations in eight cities across the nation to bust men on camera.

It was a bronze bust cast in the early years of the twentieth century when she was in her mid-to-late thirties.

The company was started at the tail end of the dot-com boom years, but it started sailing south after the bust.

Pythons sometimes have eyes too big for their stomachs-read about some particularly epic snake meals that went bust.

No one entertained the idea that the truly intelligent cyborg might simply prove a bust.

For bankers, it is the opposite: a bonus if they make short-term profits and a bailout if they go bust.

He had been a business partner of theirs and they'd gone bust.

It also meant that as soon as things were not booming, they would bust.

Science stopped the boom bust population cycle, but now it can do no more.

From a cost perspective, alternative energies are a bust.

Bust out a map and plan your bike route on residential streets.

Of course you're reluctant to bust out the nuclear warheads.

It had been speculated that the bust was created more.

Microsoft's attempt to be hip and cool in mobile is a bust.

The housing bust is feeding on itself: price declines provoke foreclosures, which provoke more price declines.

Darts around the bust and down the back really, really help in getting good fit.

The country defaulted, while the two food groups went bust.

Then you bust out the needle and thread, or the sewing machine, and do the tricky part.

It had been in the doldrums after the dot-com bust a decade ago, but with the social media gold rush and the success.

If adjuncts unionize, the system could go bust maybe.

Such hopes for housing would smack of an effort to reanimate a corpse, had the bust not so far outpaced the boom.

Averting the disruptive extremes of boom and bust can help bring about long-term growth.

Most padlocks of the time had cheap metal casings that you could easily bust open with a hammer.

Hitchens has been able to reinvent himself over and over, which is why he has so many friends and foes through boom and bust.

After several heavenly years, in which bankruptcies fell to record lows, going bust is back.

Other antidepressants give a big bust to a level neurotransmitter called norepinephrine.

If one major event goes bust it could spell doom for all the others.

Her social networking has helped bust a half-dozen terror rings, authorities say.

The genetic revolution has been pretty much a bust but it's still early in the game.

Just to begin, what would happen in that case is larger boom and bust cycles due to the lack of diversity in our economy.

Bio fuel is a bit of a bust since it uses farm land to produce fuel and therefore raises the price of food.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used without object)

Informal.

to burst.

to go bankrupt.

to collapse from the strain of making a supreme effort: She was determined to make straight A's or bust.

Cards.

Draw Poker. to fail to make a flush or straight by one card.

Blackjack. to draw cards exceeding the count of 21.

verb (used with object)

Informal.

to burst.

to bankrupt; ruin financially.

to demote, especially in military rank or grade: He was busted from sergeant to private three times.

to tame; break: to bust a bronco.

Slang.

to place under arrest: The gang was busted and put away on narcotics charges.

to subject to a police raid: The bar has been busted three times for selling drinks to minors.

Informal.

to hit.

to break; fracture: She fell and busted her arm.

noun

a failure.

Informal. a hit; sock; punch: He got a bust in the nose before he could put up his hands.

10.

a sudden decline in the economic conditions of a country, marked by an extreme drop in stock-market prices, business activity, and employment; depression.

11.

Slang.

an arrest.

a police raid.

12.

Informal. a drinking spree; binge.

EXPAND

13.

Cards.

a very weak hand.

Bridge. a hand lacking the potential to take a single trick.

COLLAPSE

adjective

14.

Informal. bankrupt; broke.

Verb phrase

15.

bust up, Informal.

to break up; separate: Sam and his wife busted up a year ago.

to damage or destroy: Soldiers got in a fight and busted up the bar.

Idioms

16.

bust ass, Slang: Vulgar. to fight with the fists; strike or thrash another.

17.

bust on, Slang.

to attack physically; beat up.

to criticize or reprimand harshly.

to make fun of or laugh at; mock.

to inform on.

18.

bust one's ass, Slang: Vulgar. to make an extreme effort; exert oneself.

Origin:
1755–65; variant of burst, by loss of r before s, as in ass², bass², passel, etc.

Usage note
Historically bust is derived from a dialect pronunciation of burst and is related to it much as cuss is related to curse. Bust is both a noun and a verb and has a wide range of meanings for both uses. Many are slang or informal. EXPANDA few, as “a decline in economic conditions, depression,” are standard

COLLAPSE

Link To bust

Collins

World English Dictionary

bust¹ (bʌst)

—n
1.	the chest of a human being, esp a woman's bosom
2.	a sculpture of the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a person

[C17: from French buste, from Italian busto a sculpture, of unknown origin]

bust² (bʌst)

—vb , busts, busting, busted, bust
1.	to burst or break
2.	to make or become bankrupt
3.	(tr) (of the police) to raid, search, or arrest: the girl was busted for drugs
4.	(US), (Canadian) (tr) to demote, esp in military rank
5.	(US), (Canadian) (tr) to break or tame (a horse, etc)
6.	chiefly (US) (tr) to punch; hit
7.	bust a gut See gut

—n
8.	a raid, search, or arrest by the police
9.	chiefly (US) a punch; hit
10.	(US), (Canadian) a failure, esp a financial one; bankruptcy
11.	a drunken party

—*adj*
12.	broken
13.	bankrupt
14.	go bust to become bankrupt

[C19: from a dialect pronunciation of burst]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

bust

1690s, "sculpture of upper torso and head," from Fr. buste (16c.), from It. busto "upper body," from L. bustum "funeral monument, tomb," originally "funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned," perhaps shortened from ambustum, neut. of ambustus "burned around," pp. of amburere "burn around, scorch,"

EXPAND

from ambi- "around" + urere "to burn." Or perhaps from O.Latin boro, the early form of classical L. uro "to burn." Sense development in Italian is probably from Etruscan custom of keeping dead person's ashes in an urn shaped like the person when alive. Meaning "bosom" is 1819.

bust

variant of burst, 1764, Amer.Eng. The verb sense of "to burst" is first attested 1806; the slang meaning "demote" (especially in a military sense) is from 1918; that of "arrest" is from 1953 (earlier "to raid" from Prohibition). Originally "frolic, spree;" sense of "sudden

failure" is from 1842. Phrase ______ or bust as an emphatic expression attested by 1851 in British depictions of Western U.S. dialect. Probably from earlier expression bust (one's) boiler, by late 1840s, a reference to steamboat boilers exploding when driven too hard.

COLLAPSE

Slang Dictionary

bust definition

n.
a failure. : The whole project was a bust from the beginning.
tv.
to reduce someone's rank. (Originally military, now also in civilian use as with the police.) : The brass busted her on the spot.
n.
a riotous drinking party. : There was a big bust in the park until two in the morning.
n.
a raid by the police. : I knew it was a bust the minute they broke in the door.
tv.
[for the police] to raid a place. : The bacon busted Bill's bar and put Bill in the slammer.
tv.
to arrest someone. : The feds finally busted Frank on a tax rap.
n.
an arrest. : The bust was carried off without much stress.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

bust (so) definition

tv.
to cause lovers to separate; to break up a pair of lovers, including married persons. (Bust is a nonstandard form of burst meaning “break (apart)” here.) : Mary busted up Terri and John.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

bust

In addition to the idioms beginning with bust, also see break (bust) one's ass; go broke (bust).