Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Slang Smashed or broken: busted glass; a busted rib.
- adj. Slang Out of order; inoperable: a busted vending machine.
- adj. Bankrupt or out of funds: I'd offer to pay but I'm busted.
- adj. Tamed or broken: a busted bronco.
- adj. Slang Placed under arrest: a busted shoplifter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Broken; bankrupt; ruined: as, a busted bank; a busted miner.
- Adorned with busts.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a certain type of bust (breasts; cleavage).
- adj. slang Broke; having no money.
- adj. slang Caught in the act of doing something one shouldn't do.
- adj. slang Extremely ugly.
- adj. slang Tired.
- adj. slang Broken.
- v. Simple past tense and past participle of bust.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. informal Inoperable due to damage; broken; -- of a machine.
- adj. informal Arrested for committing a crime; -- of a person.
- adj. same as demoted; -- said especially of military rank, and often folowed by to.
- adj. same as exhausted; -- of people.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. out of working order (`busted' is an informal substitute for `broken')
Etymologies
- See bust (Etymology 2) (Wiktionary)
Examples
“And when Ryan Torain busted free for a 13-yard run, Portis gave him a huge high-five as they crossed paths on the field.”
“The absolute lightning reaction speed of just about any animal turning on the juice after you're busted is something to behold.”
“But bad management too, financial problems for the city, a prison riot, and in his third term busted for using crack cocaine.”
“First there's somebody with my name busted for heroin in New Orleans a week ago, then yet another Gary Burnett appears here via David Gans.”
“The Indians could no more be measured and "busted" -- as the professor calls the making of plaster casts -- than could the liquor they had drunk.”
“THE Jesus wasn’t overly religious either — in fact the reason he got busted is he advocated for getting rid of complex, ossified organized religion.”
“When the mutawwa'in busted the party that led to Marcos’s deportation, they separated the “showgirls” wearing drag from the rest of the partygoers, and then asked everyone but the drag queens to line up against the wall for the dawn prayer.”
“I love that you used the word busted — even if you just meant beat up, I’m going to imagine that you meant it as slang for ugly.”
“Ain't that good psycho-ology, as Blister says when he calls a busted flush? ”
“A great drama will now play out in Albany, one that will determine whether Spitzer is still a comer or what, in another generation, would be called a busted phenom.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘busted’.
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Headlines & Newsmakers
frugality, environment, extinction, bible, killer, jazz, cloning, dead, god, moon, global warming, bailout and 340 more...
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MANY A WORD!
This is just a list, right, that I'm gonna, like, fill with words, that, like, are every word that I can, like, think of with, ahhmm, my brain.
and, able, art, ass, algebra, amp, ankle, booze, bong, aura, bling, bright and 134 more...
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Mondayish
Tired. Of all of it.
fag, fatigate, jade, beat, woe-weary, outweary, weariful, taigle, aweary, care-tuned, forwalk, fatigue and 81 more...
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JimboBaggins's list
paraphenalia
haberdashery, desideratum, esoteric, retribution, retrograde, tetrahedron, iridescent, tentative, siphon, soothsayer, wanderlust, patina and 16 more...
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Altered States Research Lab
Words and terms about (illicit) drugs and related subcultures.
reefer, golden brown, ganja, embalming fluid, shrooms, angel dust, bong, mescaline, handcuffs, padded cell, spliff, ecstasy and 79 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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You Broke It!
After the school bully breaks your new yo-yo, you can use these words to describe it. All hail the carnage!
broken, faulty, slipshod, weak, destroyed, dismantled, busted, cracked, chipped, bent, shattered, irreparable and 147 more...
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me + student loans =
You know that feeling when you open your wallet and all you can find inside are ATM receipts?
When being a squatter is the least of your worries and that thing called dignity is shove...destitution, beggary, impecuniosity, indigence, mendicancy, poor, impoverishment, pauperism, pennilessness, penuriousness, penury, poverty and 168 more...
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Desk
This is where I'm putting all those words that are still looking for a home among my other lists. Like its real-life counterpart, the desk will always be a little messy.
tchotchke, kvetch, futon, east coast, balboa, character, pahoehoe, erudite, otolaryngology, busted, betwixt, bombast and 32 more...
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Inebriation
Euphemisms for drunkenness dating back to the 18th century.
stiff, fuzzy, bent, slewed, stinking, screwed, lushy, pixilated, swizzled, whipped, tanglefooted, spiffed and 40 more...
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My Favorite Words
I have a little book where I have been collecting favorite words, now I can add them here!
true, tentacles, abundance, ample, abacus, busted, foxy, bangkok, somnambulists, equipped, nectar, sanctum and 10 more...
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Pruufreadr's Words
mica, leaf, geologist, geology, motocross, marshmallow, marshlands, everlasting, fidelity, whiskey, amazingly, forgotten and 47 more...
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2012-11-20
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ErinDowding's Words
fester, delicate, mindful, hateful, saveur, trash, creep, picky, roundabout, busted
Tweets
Looking for tweets for busted.

Prolagus :-( Oct 28, 2008