bust

Universal Words verb, noun, adjective verb (bust, bust) or (busted, busted) [VN] (informal) 1 to break sth: I bust my camera. * The lights are busted. * Come out, or I'll bust the door down! 2 ~ sb/sth (for sth) (of the police) to suddenly enter a place and search it or arrest sb: He's been busted for drugs. 3 (especially AmE) to make sb lower in military rank as a punishment IDIOMS bust a gut (doing sth / to do sth) (informal) to make a great effort to do sth: It's a problem which nobody is going to bust a gut trying to solve. ...or bust (informal) used to say that you will try very hard to get somewhere or achieve sth: For him it's the Olympics or bust. PHRASALVERBS bust up (informal) (of a couple, friends, partners, etc.) to quarrel and separate: They bust up after five years of marriage. relatednounBUST-UP bust sth<->up (informal) to make sth end by disturbing or ruining it: It was his drinking that bust up his marriage. noun 1 a stone or metal model of a person's head, shoulders and chest: a marble bust of Napoleon 2 (used especially when talking about clothes or measurements) a woman's breasts or the measurement around the breasts and back: What is your bust measurement, Madam? * The dress was too big in the bust. * exercises to tone the bust 3 (informal) an unexpected visit made by the police in order to arrest people for doing sth illegal: a drug bust adjective [notusuallybeforenoun] (informal) 1 (BrE) broken: My watch is bust. 2 (of a person or business) failed because of a lack of money: We're bust! * We lost our money when the travel company went bust.