Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. of a business or enterprise, bankrupt, subject to financial collapse.

1829		R.C. Sands Writings II 153: For the Aigle bank was busted, and the Cataract of Freedom stopped [DAE].
1842		Bristol Mirror 1 Oct. 6/4: The State Bank — busted all to pieces, and hang me if I didn’t lose thirty per cent.
1868		‘Richard the Third’ in Rootle-Tum Songster 49: De bank am bust – I isn’t got a cent.
1871		A. Doten Journals 1849-1903 (1973) II 26 May 1129: The Olympic Varieties troupe has been playing all the week at Carson but got busted out & came home to Virginia this pm They are a gone up institution—Played out.
1884		J. Harrison ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 263: To be bustid up = to be bankrupt, to fail.
1892		H. Lawson ‘Jones’s Alley’ in Roderick (1972) 37: The landlord had lost all his money in a bust financial institution.
1898		F. Dumont Dumont’s Joke Book 29: mid.: What became of your newspaper? end.: Busted up.
1910		Investigation of the Department of the Interior 2130: It is a busted-up company. mr brandeis: You mean to say it has gone out of existence or that it is bankrupt? mr birch: It is bankrupt.
1922		H.L. Wilson Merton of the Movies 194: He looked like the juvenile lead of a busted road show.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 104: If the lid blows off Danzig the hotel will be empty within twenty-four hours and we shall be bust.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 14 Sept. 67: Put ’em on Dartmoor to farm and they’d be bust in two years.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 125: Plastics closed down all but a few [factories] in the seventies, but Daddy was bust before that, so it wasn’t much to worry about.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 45: Dr and Mrs Bland arrived back in Sydney Cove [...] flat busted and with the doc swearing an anything by Hippocratic oath never to outlay on a chaffburner again .

2. broken.

1857		Dickens Little Dorrit (1967) 303: I would wish to take the liberty to ask how it’s [i.e. the heart] to be made good to his parents when bust?
1893		A. Doten Journals 1849-1903 (1973) III 1 Sept. 1846: I sent my old ‘49 violin to Bessie . . . because she says father’s old fiddle is busted.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 311: Her game’s mighty near bust, but it’s still got a chance.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 67: ‘Where’s the lamp?’ ‘It’s over dere on de floor, bust to pieces,’ mumbled Rhoda Gray.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘Knight’s Return’ in Chisholm (1951) 85: But ’ere’s me lip swole up an’ one eye black / An’ all me map in gen’ril bunged an’ bust.
1951		A. Buckeridge Jennings Follows a Clue (1967) 18: ‘It’s bust,’ he announced.
1968		P. Terson Apprentices (1970) I iii: Why didn’t somebody say he had spectacles on? Are they bust, son?

3. (also bustereeno) of an individual, impoverished, out of funds.

1874		‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 339: ‘Fact; the nut broke the bill at Newark; I saw him; he ain’t drunk, and so can’t be bust yet’.
1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: He is told by his equally ‘busted’ companions to ‘stand him up,’ ‘give him the slip,’ ‘put up your educated forefinger at him’.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 59: I was busted flatter’n a cold slap-jack.
1883		S. Bourke & Mornington Jrnl (Richmond, Vic.) 24 Jan. 1s/1: I’m busted [...] case of clean smash.
1885		S. Thompson Humbler Poets 268: The proud aristocratic folks, who sot in fortune’s door, / Who thought they ’d never come to want, are busted up an’ poor .
1891		Sporting Times Feb. 1/1: ‘I am as near busted as makes no difference’.
1903		Rosebud Co. News (Forsyth, MT) 4 June 5/3: The wife complains of ills, and it keeps the husband ‘busted’ buying dope and drugs and pills.
1914		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 11 Feb. 3/2: So when a man are busted, / Squashed in stern reality, / And he ain’t a thrumbo on him.
1920		H.G. Wiley Wildcat 14: Wartimes an’ folks movin’ away has me about bust now.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘Nocturne’ in Rose of Spadgers 53: Dead keen to splash around ’is surplis wealth / On rapid livin’ till ’e’s bust an’ broke.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 28: I offer you half a quid [...] You’re bust and you won’t take it.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 536: You’re pretty well bust yourselves.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 96: Flat bust [...] I don’t feel no good without money.
1959		‘Hal Ellson’ Jailbait Street (1963) 52: ‘Hey, what about some pot? It’s the best.’ ‘I’m busted’.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 184: ‘I’m busted,’ he said dejectedly.
1967		H.S. Thompson letter 5 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 603: The handlers get rich while the animals either get busted or screwed to the floor with bad contracts.
1970		D. Jenkins Dogged Victims 58: He once arrived [...] with the town so crowded—and himself so busted—that he joyfully bunked in the city jail.
1985–6		J. Stahl ‘Finnegan’s Waikiki’ in Love Without (2007) 139: I’m broke. Bustereeno.
2000		P. Earley Super Casino 228: ‘At Christmas everyone in a casino dies because there isn’t much action, and one Christmas I was really busted’.
2011		J. Mabus ‘Sally Gal’ 🎵 Busted flat — no crime in that.
2015		(con. 1919) C. Fountain Betrayal 106: Bill Burns and Billy Maharg [...] now found themselves suddenly busted and out of the game.