bust

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To break something, or to break open suddenly and forcefully.

   He busted the lock trying to open the door.

2. 2
   noun

   A woman's chest, or the measurement around it.

   The dress was a little tight around the bust.

3. 3
   noun

   A sculpture of a person's head, shoulders, and upper chest.

   A marble bust of the poet stood in the library.

4. 4
   noun

   A complete failure.

   The party was a total bust because no one came.

Borrowed from French buste, from Italian busto (“torso, upper body”), from Latin bustum (“funeral monument, tomb," originally "funeral pyre, place where corpses are burned”). Perhaps shortened from Latin ambustum, neuter of ambustus (“scorched”), past participle of ambūrō (“burn all over, scorch”), from ambi- (“around”) + ūrō (“to burn”).

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