bust

«bust» in Mova's school dictionary: to break it: «I bust my bike» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (bust, busts, bust or busted, busting); noun (a bust, busts); adjective (bust)

meaning for a pupil

1) (informal) To bust something is to break it: «I bust my bike». tree →

2) A bust is a statue of a person's head, shoulders and chest. tree →

3) A bust is a woman's chest, or its measurement for clothes. tree →

4) (informal) Go bust means a business runs out of money and closes. tree →

5) (slang) To bust someone is to catch them doing wrong or arrest them; a bust is a police raid. tree →

6) (slang) «Busted!» means «you've been caught!». tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday talk it is a casual, strong word for «broken» or «caught». In history lessons and museums, busts are statues of famous people. In business news, «the company went bust». Phrases: «go bust», «busted!», «bust a gut» (try very hard), «a drugs bust», «-buster» (ghostbuster, myth-buster).

examples

• I bust my headphones when I sat on them. tree →
• There is a marble bust of the old queen in the museum. tree →
• The toy shop went bust and closed. tree →
• Busted! I saw you take the last biscuit! tree →
• The police made a big drugs bust. tree →
• We bust a gut to finish the model on time. tree →
• The dressmaker measured her bust, waist and hips. tree →
• Alfred decided to take a bust of Kaela as well as of her mother. tree →

note

Past form: «bust» (UK) or «busted» (US and informal everywhere). «Bust» for break is informal; in writing use «broke». The chest meaning is polite, not rude. «Busted» can also mean «broken» in US slang: a busted phone.

In the corpora

• A late coach becomes "the coach company went bust".

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «bust» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.