What does bust mean?
A bust is a work of sculpture showing a person's head, neck, shoulders, and upper chest — a form favored since antiquity for honoring statesmen, writers, and loved ones, and commonly displayed on plinths, desks, and pedestals. Beyond the gallery, 'bust' has taken on lively informal meanings: a business or enterprise that 'goes bust' has failed outright, a 'drug bust' is a police raid ending in arrests, and in casual American speech 'to bust' can mean to break or smash something. The word's two lives make it versatile but register-sensitive: the sculptural sense suits formal writing, while phrases like 'boom and bust', describing the cycle of economic growth and collapse, are firmly established in journalism and everyday conversation. Whether carved in marble or uttered about a bankrupt company, 'bust' always implies something reduced to essentials — a head without a body, or a fortune brought to nothing.
A sculptural representation of a person's head, neck, shoulders, and upper chest.
"She commissioned a bronze bust of her grandfather for the library."
This is the original and formally correct sense of the word.
(Informal) A sudden failure or collapse, especially of a business or market; also a police raid leading to arrests.
"The startup went bust within eighteen months of launching."
Chiefly informal; 'bankruptcy' or 'collapse' is preferred in formal contexts.
(Informal, chiefly US) To break or smash something; to tame a wild animal such as a horse; or to demote or reduce in rank (military slang).
"He accidentally busted the antique vase while dusting the shelf."
Informal American usage; standard English uses 'break' or 'burst'.
Standard plural applies across all noun senses, though the informal failure/arrest senses more often appear in singular fixed phrases like 'go bust'.
"The corridor was lined with marble busts of former presidents."
The word 'bust' traveled from Roman funeral monuments to Renaissance sculpture — and then took a sharp detour into slang, where 'going bust' became shorthand for losing everything.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bust
The noun 'bust' entered English in the late seventeenth century from French 'buste', which itself derives from Italian 'busto', meaning both the human torso and a sculptural likeness of it. Italian scholars trace 'busto' to Latin 'bustum', a funeral pyre or tomb — reflecting the practice of placing portrait sculptures at burial sites. The informal senses are separate: the verb 'bust' arose in nineteenth-century American English as a variant of 'burst', and the noun meanings of failure and arrest grew out of that verb.
Related word forms
How bust is actually used
As a verb, 'to bust' is informal American English meaning to break, smash, or tame (as in 'bust a bronco'); standard English prefers 'burst' or 'break'. The noun senses range from formal (the sculptural sense) to distinctly colloquial (failure, arrest). The phrase 'or bust' expresses determination to reach a destination or goal at all costs.
Easily confused with bust
'Burst' means to break apart suddenly under pressure, while 'bust' is an informal variant meaning to break or smash something, and separately a noun for a sculpture of the head and chest.