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bust

verb · noun

Simple meaning

Break open or apart suddenly and forcefully.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

buhst
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbʌst

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. Break open or apart suddenly and forcefully

  2. transitiveslang

    To break in (an animal).

  3. transitiveslang

    To break in (a woman or girl), to deflower

  4. transitiveslang

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

  5. transitiveslang

    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.

  6. transitive

    To debunk, dispel (a belief).

noun

  1. A sculpture of the head and shoulders of a person

  2. A sculptural portrayal of a person's head and shoulders.

  3. A woman's breasts; the circumference of her chest measured around the breasts.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Break open or apart suddenly and forcefully

Used this way, bust is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It comes across as direct, sometimes bluntly so.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Sudden and forceful
Usage feel
Blunt and forceful

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use bust

  • “They went on a bust that lasted three days.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

drug bustbaby bustmarble bustbronze bustportrait bustbust cycleplaster bust

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • busternounInflected form

    An informal form of address for a man.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • bustiernounPerson or profession · specialist

    A close-fitting and strapless top without sleeves that is worn by women either as lingerie or for evening dress.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • bust-upnounCompound term

    A serious quarrel (especially one that ends a friendship).

  • bust-up takeovernounCompound term

    A leveraged buyout in which the target company's assets are sold to repay the loan that financed the takeover.

  • clot busternounCompound term

    A kind of pharmaceutical that can break up clots blocking the flow of blood to the heart muscle.

  • drug bustnounCompound term

    Seizure of illegal drugs by the police.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: break open or apart suddenly and forcefully

snap

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.