bust 1 (b?st)n.1. A sculpture representing a person’s head, shoulders, and upper chest.2. a. A woman’s breasts.b. The human chest.[French buste, from Italian busto, possibly from Latin bustum, sepulchral monument.]bust 2 (b?st)v. bust·ed, bust·ing, busts v.tr.1. Informal a. To smash or break, especially forcefully: “Mr. Luger worked it with a rake, busting up the big clods, making a flat brown table” (Garrison Keillor).b. To render inoperable or unusable: busted the vending machine by putting in foreign coins.2. To cause to come to an end; break up: an attempt to bust the union.3. To break or tame (a horse).4. To cause to become bankrupt or short of money: “Unwatched overhead could bust us in a year’s time” (Louis Auchincloss).5. Informal a. To place under arrest.b. To make a police raid on.6. Slang To reduce in rank; demote.7. Slang To hit; punch.v.intr.1. Slang a. To undergo breakage; become broken.b. To burst; break: “Several companies have threatened to bust out of their high-wage contracts by the dubious technique of declaring bankruptcy” (Washington Post).2. To become bankrupt or short of money.3. Games To lose at blackjack by exceeding a score of 21.n.1. A failure; a flop: “The home-style bean curd is a bust, oily and rubbery” (Mark and Gail Barnett).2. A time or period of widespread financial depression: “Bankers consider the region’s diversified economy to be good protection against a possible real estate bust” (American Banker).3. Slang A punch; a blow.4. Informal A spree: a fraternity beer bust.5. Informal a. An arrest.b. A raid.Idioms: bust a nut Vulgar Slang To have an orgasm.bust (one’s) ass/balls/butt Vulgar Slang To make a strenuous effort; work very hard. bust (someone’s) balls/chops1. Vulgar Slang To make extreme or unreasonable demands of someone.2. To harass or scold someone. go bust To go bankrupt.[Variant of burst.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.bust (b?st) n1. (Anatomy) the chest of a human being, esp a woman’s bosom2. (Art Terms) a sculpture of the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a person[C17: from French buste, from Italian busto a sculpture, of unknown origin]bust (b?st) vb, busts, busting, busted or bust1. to burst or break2. to make or become bankrupt3. (Law) (tr) (of the police) to raid, search, or arrest: the girl was busted for drugs. 4. (Military) (tr) US and Canadian to demote, esp in military rank5. (Horse Training, Riding & Manège) (tr) US and Canadian to break or tame (a horse, etc)6. (tr) chiefly US to punch; hit7. bust a gut See gut9n8. (Law) a raid, search, or arrest by the police9. chiefly US a punch; hit10. US and Canadian a failure, esp a financial one; bankruptcy11. a drunken partyadj12. broken13. (Banking & Finance) bankrupt14. go bust to become bankrupt[C19: from a dialect pronunciation of burst]Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014bust1 (b?st) n. 1. a representation of the upper part of the human figure, esp. the head and shoulders. 2. the chest or breast, esp. a woman’s bosom. [1685?95; A woman’s breasts are the two soft, round pieces of flesh on her chest that can produce milk to feed a baby.A woman’s breasts can be referred to as her bust, especially when you are talking about their size. Note that bust refers to both breasts together. You do not talk about a woman’s ‘busts’.Bust is also used to talk about the measurement around the top part of a woman’s body at the level of her breasts.A woman’s breasts can also be referred to as her bosom /’b?z?m/. This is an old-fashioned or literary word.Bust can be a verb, an adjective, or a noun. The past tense and past participle of the verb is either bust or busted.If you bust something, you break or damage it so badly that it cannot be used. Note that you only use bust with this meaning in conversation. You do not use it in formal writing.In informal English, if someone is busted, the police arrest them.In conversation, if you say that something is bust, you mean that it is broken or very badly damaged.Note that in American English, the adjective is busted not ‘bust’.If a company goes bust, it loses so much money that it is forced to close down. You do not use this expression in formal English.A woman’s bust is her breasts.