bust

CEFRC1

/bʌst/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To break, damage, or catch someone doing wrong.

  2. 02

    noun

    A sculpture showing a person's head and upper chest.

Examples

  • A bust of Aristotle stands on a pedestal in the entryway.

  • The company went bust, owing millions of dollars in unpaid wages and unfilled orders.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To arrest (someone or a group of people) for a crime.

  2. 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.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. A woman's chest or breast measurement.

More examples

In context

  • Aaron got busted by the feds for leaking confidential government documents on Reddit.

  • I busted my cooker while trying to fix it.

  • He busted huge air off that jump!

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The police raided the warehouse and managed to blank the illegal drug operation.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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.